And the hits just keep on coming!
The Ministry of Justice has just published the provisional tribunal statistics for October to December 2017.
And they’re startling.
As you might know, tribunal fees were abolished in July last year.
Which means that it costs nothing for a disgruntled ex employee to start a claim, with or without justification.
The previous quarter showed an increase in tribunal claims of 64%.
This time, the increase is 90% over the previous year!
That’s right, NINETY PER CENT.
The most common complaint was “unlawful deductions from wages”.
So you should definitely be making sure that you are paying – and documenting that you are paying – the correct amounts.
There is obviously a higher risk of a tribunal now, so you need to always take expert advice before dealing with staff issues.
But the silver lining is that given the number of claims, the backlog at tribunal will be huge, giving you the chance to settle for x amount now, rather than the employee getting y amount in 12 months’ time.
But our advice, as always, is to do it right the first time, then you won’t have to worry about settling!
If you need to talk to someone about these issues, just hit reply or give us a call on 01491 699550.