§ Mr. Woodallasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many unfair dismissal claims were made between 1 January 1980 and 1 January 1981 for the most recent period of one year for which he has the figures; how many of the claims were settled by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service; what was the outcome, namely (a) settled in the employee's favour, (b) settled in employer's favour, (c) compensation and (d) reinstatement; what was the outcome of cases dealt with by industrial tribunals; and what were the compensation levels awarded by the tribunals.
§ Mr. WaddingtonIn 1979, the most recent year for which detailed figures are available, 35,253 unfair dismissal applications were registered at the central offices of the industrial tribunals and 33,383 cases (including some cases registered in the previous year) were completed ie either heard before a tribunal or disposed of without a hearing. Almost two-thirds of completed cases (21,678) were disposed of without a hearing after conciliation by ACAS, being either settled (11,422) or withdrawn (10,256). Re-employment was agreed in 400 of the settled cases, compensation in 10,851 and another remedy in 171.
Of the total 11,705 cases which reached a tribunal hearing, 3,187 complaints were upheld, that is dismissal was found to be unfair. In 99 cases the tribunals made orders for employees to be reinstated or re-engaged, and a further 2,388 applicants were awarded compensation. Almost half the awards were less than £400 each and almost three quarters were less than £750. About 2 per cent. of awards were over £4,000. In the remaining 700 upheld complaints, 153 applicants were found to be entitled to a redundancy payment and 547 were awarded some other remedy.