It’s trebles all round for employment lawyers as the most recent figures from the Ministry of Justice show that in the quarter from July to September 2017 the number of claims issued in the Employment Tribunal trebled.
In the period , April to June 2017, 4,241 individual claims were issued, but in the three months from July to September 2017 that number rose to 7,042. Furthermore, there was a 144% increase in the number of multiple claims during the same period. These figures appear to suggest that the abolition of Tribunal fees following the Supreme Court decision in July 2017 has had a significant impact on the issuing of claims.
It will be interesting to see if the trend remains upwards when the next quarter’s figures are published.
In the meantime, employers may well want to give more thought to alternative forms of dispute resolution such as mediation. The general rule is that costs are not recoverable in the Employment Tribunal and the costs of defending claims effectively is eye-wateringly high. Resolving issues early by effective use of mediation can result in massive savings both of money and management time. Workplace mediation has incredibly high success rates, is very speedy and compared to litigation, is very inexpensive.
If your organisation is still not using workplace mediation on a regular basis, give us a call for a free consultation to find out how we can help – 02038575690