§ Bob RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many claims were made by those seeking part-time employee pension entitlements following a ruling in May 2000 by the European Court of Justice; how many have been settled; and when she expects all outstanding cases to be dealt with. [32292]
§ Alan JohnsonThe Employment Tribunals Service database (RITAS) does not identify these particular claims from any other claims brought under equal pay or sex discrimination legislation. It is therefore not possible to give exact figures for claims brought following the ECJ ruling in May 2000 or which claims brought since then have settled.
However, manual records indicate that since May 2000 approximately 19,000 claims have been made to an employment tribunal following the ECJ ruling. In the same period approximately 11,000 claims were disposed of prior to a hearing including those settled leaving over 51,000 outstanding claims.
The majority of claims are against public sector employers and are stayed awaiting the result of test cases which are scheduled to be heard between 24 June and 19 July 2002. The findings of these test cases will be applicable to those stayed cases.