RECESSION BLAMED AS WORK TRIBUNAL CASES SOAR BY 50%

by Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent, Daily Mail.

Employment tribunal cases soared by more than 50 per cent last year as recession-hit workers tried to claw compensation from their bosses!

The industrial courts granted an estimated £1billion in payouts to those who claimed they had been wrongly dismissed or suffered discrimination.  In all 236,100 workers brought claims to the tribunals in the financial year that ended in March, up from 151,000 in the previous year and three times the numbers of the late 1990’s.

Some workers claimed they had been wronged in more than one way, meaning the total number of claims reached 392,800.  The pressure of compensation claims on tribunals is such that some have adopted an “open all hours” policy, running sessions during evenings and on Saturdays to meet the demand.

Kevin Sadler, chief executive of the Tribunals Service said yesterday that there was a “steeply growing workload” and added “There is no doubt that economic conditions have contributed to an increase in the number of cases received”.

The greatest jump came in claims under European legislation. Number of cases involving the European Working Time Directive – which limits the working week to 48 hours – almost quadrupled in a year from 24,000 to 95,200.  The directive, written into British law by Tony Blair’s government in 1998 is already reckoned to be costing the NHS nearly £4billion a year because it restricts the hours of junior doctors. Brussels is currently threatening to end the opt-out system that allows workers in this county the right to choose to work longer.

There were also a growing number of multiple claims in which large numbers of staff took out tribunal actions against a single employer.  The collapse of Woolworths brought multiple unfair dismissal claims; the rush of equal pay cases against local councils by groups of workers encouraged by unions has continued; and there have been multiple claims connected to the BA cabin crew dispute.

Numbers of race discrimination claims have gone up by nearly 40 per cent in two years to reach 5,700 last year.  There were also big increases in claims over alleged discrimination on grounds of disability, religion, sexual orientation and age.  Some claimants left their tribunal with compensation awards on the scale of a lottery win.  The biggest payout was £729,347 in a disability discrimination case.

For sex discrimination to the top awarded was £442,366 and the most successful race discrimination claimant won £374,922.  Amounts handed out to those who showed they had suffered poor treatment because of their age were lower with the biggest award being £48,710.  More than four out of ten cases settled last year ended with compensation awards, either ordered by tribunals or negotiated by the conciliation service ACAS.  The average payment was more than £9,000 in unfair dismissal cases and over £50,000 for those who suffered disability discrimination.

There are no records of what happened in the third of cases that were withdrawn before they came to a tribunal. In many of these employers will have settled out of court.

Pre- nuptial Agreements, are they legal?

Helen Habershon, Family Law specialists writes....

The heiress, Katrin Racmacher made history recently when a court backed her prenuptial agreement with husband of 10 years, Nicolas Granatino. On 2 July, three judges from the Court of Appeal ruled in a test case that one of Europe’s richest women should not have to pay millions to her former husband because of a contract they signed together before their wedding day.

When the couple separated in 2006, Katrin assumed her husband would stick to the terms of a deal signed before their 1998 marriage, in which they both agreed to waive their rights to claims against each other’s wealth in the case of divorce. Not so, in fact, last year, he won a £5.56 million share of her fortune in the High court in London. Last week, the ruling was overturned and her husband’s share was slashed to £700,000 plus housing and maintenance.

This case has effectively established a change in the law on prenuptial agreements, without the need for parliament to pass legislation. The court of appeal judges on hearing the case said that the courts should now take account of premarital deals on splitting a couples assets.

Age is relative, but we are all getting older......

Currently there are more than 20 million people aged 50 and over in the UK and it is expected to be 27 million by 2030. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations came into effect in October 2006 and make it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age (unless this can be objectively justified).

The Regulations have introduced a national default retirement age of 65, removed the upper age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy and given the employer a duty to consider requests to continue working beyond 65; this legislation also provided a requirement for employers to give written notification to employees (at least six months in advance) of their intended date of retirement and notify them of their right to request to continue working.

Employers have also been made responsible for the actions of their employees and therefore firms should ensure policies and procedures expressly prohibit all forms of discrimination on the grounds of age (as well as everything else).

Be warned - there is no upper limit to the compensation payable if an employer is found guilty of age discrimination and we would advise every employer who has not yet done so to draw up an age equality policy. It is sensible to consult with your staff or their union representative if appropriate and then made certain all staff are aware of the policy.

If you need any help with this, you know where to come.