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Employment Tribunal Claims rise by a Quarter on Last Year
11.09.2008
‘’Prevention is better than cure’ – says Midlands law firm Recent figures released by ACAS, the employment relations service, show that employment tribunal claims in 2007/2008 rose by a quarter on last year.
In 2007/2008 ACAS received a total of 227,782 claims from the Employment Tribunal, compared with 180,420 in 2006/2007.
Clare McShane, a solicitor with East Midlands law firm, Shacklocks, which provides a specialist employment law support service to local businesses, said:
“This is a significant increase. There has been a particular rise in Equal Pay claims, however this does not account for the whole of the increase. Employers should always be aware of the risks of employees, former employees, or in some cases, even candidates or potential candidates for recruitment, pursuing any claim that they think they might have. If you find yourself on the receiving end of a claim, good advice is essential. However we believe that prevention is better than cure and urge local businesses to take advice early.”
Clare added that,
“Employers shouldn't wait for a Tribunal claim to drop in to their in-tray before getting advice. Often the best advice is that which is given at an even earlier stage and could be the key to avoiding a tribunal situation in the first place! One of the things it's important to start with is ensuring that you have the documents and processes in place to deal with employee problems and manage day to day employment issues. We know how important this is and offer a business health check where we can see whether your existing policies and processes are protecting your business.”
