Scramble for a tribunal payday

A RECORD number of cases went before employment tribunals last year, despite a Government push to increase the use of Acas, its dispute-solving service. Nearly 130,000 applications for tribunals were made, a 10% rise on 2000.

Peter Done, managing director of employment law firm Peninsula, which compiled the figures, said this was because of new employment laws and the growing media attention on high-profile tribunal awards. He said: 'Employees now have a lot more rights. Fifty new employment laws were introduced in the Nineties, compared with only ten in the Seventies.

'For example, part-timers last year were given the same rights as full-time workers. There are now more reasons to go to court. Employment tribunal cases are also attracting more publicity and this has generated ever more claims.

'People see big awards being given by employment tribunals and they expect to get the same.'

The Government increased the maximum award for unfair dismissal cases from £51,700 to £52,600 this month, but there is no ceiling in discrimination cases.

Julie Bower, a former drinks industry analyst at Schroder Securities, was recently awarded £1.4m for alleged sex discrimination. Bower, 35, claimed her male colleagues had received bonuses 26 times bigger than hers. Schroder is to appeal against the award, one of the biggest of its kind.

Disgruntled ex-employees are ignoring a new Acas scheme set up last May to settle unfair dismissal disputes. So far, it has resolved only five cases. But Done insists: 'It was obvious from the start that the scheme wouldn't work because it deals only with unfair dismissal. So many cases now also involve discrimination or wage disputes, which have to be dealt with by a tribunal, so why go through the process twice?

'The Acas system also fails to give claimants the right to appeal, and they want to have this right.'