Redundancy tribunals ‘on the rise’

Posted 30/09/2009

New government figures have revealed that the number of workers taking their employers to tribunals over redundancy issues has increased in the last year.

The Tribunal Service has posted its report for 2008-09, which reveals that 11,371 workers had claims accepted relating to breaches of employment law during their redundancy procedure, compared to 4,480 in 2007-08.

Moreover, the number of unfair dismissal cases also saw an increase of almost 30 per cent compared to the previous year, becoming the most common type of claim to be accepted.

In total, the number of single claims rose by 15 per cent due to the effects of the recession on businesses and workers.

It comes after the most recent figures released by Acas also demonstrated a rise in the number of conciliation cases for unfair dismissal in the last year.

As a result, employment initiative Work Wise UK last month urged companies to ensure that they take advice on their responsibilities under employment law in order to avoid disputes.