From October to December 2020, the number of employment tribunal cases rose sharply - following the trend of employment tribunal cases spiking in the light of COVID-19.  The pandemic has had a significant impact on the criminal justice system, leaving a major backlog and delay in tribunal hearings. Over the last year, multiple employment tribunal cases saw the largest increase - rising by 82 per cent or 29,000.  Single employment tribunal claims rose by 25 per cent to 13,200 in comparison to the same period the year before.

During this period, it was ‘working time’ claims which were the most common - surpassing ‘unfair dismissal’ which had been the most frequent type of complaint during October - December 2019.  The fact that tribunal cases had decreased in each jurisdiction apart from employment tribunals, was attributed to the rise in unemployment and changes to working conditions brought about by COVID-19.

For the first part of the pandemic, employment tribunal claims had been put on hold altogether, with the Ministry of Justice saying that there were 39,093 single claims and 5,915 multiple claims outstanding. 

In October, the Government announced that courts would have the ability to hold remote hearings as well as the judiciary having the option to use non-employment judges. 

However, a backlog remains - and it can take at least 12 months for a case to be heard.

The Ministry of Justice report anticipated that the number of employment tribunal cases will fall over the coming months due to the possible extension until the autumn of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Chris Millward - Head of Claims at ARAG, a legal advice and protection provider - said:

“An increase in employment tribunal claims was expected, given the high level of redundancies we saw towards the end of 2020, but it’s clear from weekly management information released yesterday that the tribunal system does not have the capacity to cope.

The steps government proposed to address the backlog last year, increasing use of virtual hearings and trying to deploy underutilised and non-specialist judges, clearly haven’t worked. There is no doubt that stronger action is urgently needed to bring the backlog under control.

We warned that the backlog was approaching 50,000 cases, back in September, but it has continued to grow steadily, ever since. The end to the furlough scheme is likely to bring another spike in redundancies and yet more tribunal claims, so it is hard to see the situation improving anytime soon.

The situation is intolerable for businesses facing a claim and for those employees who may have been unfairly treated, as it is clear many will have to wait significant periods of time, potentially years, before getting any sort of resolution to their dispute.”