Employment tribunals became fairly commonplace in the mid-2000s and peaked between 2009 and 2010. However, figures released last week by the Ministry of Justice suggest that workers are now keen to avoid the expense and stress of a legal proceeding against their employer, especially as it could further threaten their job security at a time when unemployment is still high.
Cases fell from 235,000 in 2010 to only 186,300 in 2012, equating to a drop of around 20 per cent in only two years. Unfair dismissal cases fell by 20 per cent, while claims of inequality when the subject of pay arose dropped by 22 per cent.
Sexual discrimination claims fell furthest, however, with a massive 40 per cent reduction in only two years. 18,200 cases were brought to tribunal in 2010, yet this dropped to only 10,800 last year.
Not all categories of claims dropped significantly, though, with working hour disputes and disability discrimination tribunals remaining fairly consistent with the levels recorded two years ago.
Under the rules of the EU working time directive, employers must not force their employees to work for longer hours than is reasonable, yet in 2010 95,200 workers brought their bosses to tribunal for doing just that. This dropped only marginally in 2012, with 94,700 recorded cases in the year.
Meanwhile, disability discrimination claims actually rose in 2012, to 7,700 from 7,500 in 2010.
Many will argue that falling figures are a good sign – surely, with fewer workers raising complaints, this means that businesses on the whole are improving in the way they treat their employees and making their place of work a more equal environment. However, there is a very real concern that employees are choosing to ignore injustices for fear of rocking the boat and finding themselves unemployed, therefore allowing their employers to implement pay cuts or lay off staff members without hindrance.
Of course, the overall picture may be a little fuzzy due to the nature of employment tribunals. This is because employees may raise multiple claims against their employer at once, thus clouding the number of actual workers bringing their cases to the attention of an outside party. However, as single claims and multiple claims have both fallen steeply in the past two years, this factor will only play a minimal role in determining the true state of employment tribunals in the UK.
According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), it is not the number of cases that should be a cause for concern for British businesses. Rather, it is the amount of time it takes to successfully resolve a case that should be addressed in order to benefit both companies and their staff.
A spokesperson said; “If numbers of single cases are falling, that’s good for workers and businesses. But there is a long way to go before it is at an acceptable level.
“The beef for businesses is not the number of tribunals itself – clearly workers should have a right to independent arbitration – but the delays in the system.
“Tribunal cases are still taking far too long, unfair dismissals on average take 35 weeks.”
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