22% of discrimination cases successful at employment tribunals

Nick Elvin

Less than a quarter of discrimination claims heard at employment tribunals are successful, compared to a 62% success rate for all other types of employment tribunal claims.

The figures, which were provided to employment law firm GQ Employment Law by the Tribunals Service and cover the quarter until June 30, showed that out of a total of 3,210 discrimination cases heard at an employment tribunal, 710 were successful, amounting to 22%. This is compared to 18,847 successful non-discrimination cases out of a total of 30,498.

GQ Employment Law says the fact that a large majority of discrimination claims are won by the employer is good news for businesses as there is no monetary cap placed on the size of discrimination claims. Unfair dismissal compensation is capped at £76,574 or one year’s pay – whichever is lower, but claimants in discrimination cases can seek amounts far higher than this, and six or seven figure pay-outs are not uncommon.

While these figures do not mean that discrimination is disappearing from the workplace – indeed where there is a strong claim of discrimination, employers will often seek to settle the claim before it reaches tribunal to avoid bad publicity – they do demonstrate that discrimination claims that are not settled are much more likely to be decided in the employer’s favour.

Jon Gilligan, partner at GQ Employment Law said: “Employers are very anxious about defending discrimination claims in the employment tribunal. Many believe that the employees are at an advantage and consistently win the majority of cases.

“There is always a bit of a risk for employers in defending a discrimination case at the employment tribunal, but these figures show that employers normally win.

“This might encourage risk-averse employers who would normally settle a case to avoid an employment tribunal hearing to take stronger line against weak claims.”

Figures released earlier this year show that the total number of employment tribunal claims fell sharply since the introduction of fees in 2013, and in April it became compulsory for those seeking to make a claim to first try to settle their dispute through the Early Conciliation scheme. More than 17,000 Early Conciliation notices were received by conciliation service Acas in the first three months since it launched.