The Employment Tribunal Service has just published its annual stats for the period 1/4/06 to 31/3/07, they make interesting reading and should focus your mind when dealing with your staff relations.
The number of cases brought increased from 86,181 in 2004/2005 to 132,577 in 2006/2007, in the latest year only around 7,000 were rejected under the 2004 rules.
The main reasons for claim seem to be unfair dismissal, unlawful deductions from wages and failure to consult in redundancy cases. There were a large number of equal pay claims but these were mainly related to local authorities. Breach of contract and sex discrimination came next in line.
If an unfair dismissal claim gets to a hearing the decisions have gone near enough 50:50, the average compensation in this category being almost £8,000. If successful, average race, sex and disability discrimination compensations were £14,000, £10,000 and £15,000 respectively. Add to these figures the basis awards and your representation costs, and losing at a hearing can be an expensive business; particularly for a small or medium business.
What do we abstract from this? My advice is to:
• keep on top of contracts, policies and procedures
• follow them carefully and make sure your managers do
• use effective induction procedures and get signed checklists
• incorporate and use a probation procedure
• don’t assume a good employee, a ‘friend maybe’, will never claim
• if you have need to take disciplinary and similar action seek advice beforehand, or, if this isn’t possible, as soon as possible afterwards
• keep notes, records and documents
If you want an HR audit or Healthcheck give me a call, in most instances it only takes a day and could save you money and heartache.
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