On examining the statistics from the latest employment tribunal claim statistics for the year ending March 31, 2011, a few statistics really stood out.

Firstly, it was very how very few reinstatement or re-engagement orders were made. Out of 49,600 unfair dismissal claims, tribunals awarded just 8 reinstatements.

Also noticeable were the significant differences between the average award for different types of claim. Claims for unfair dismissal compensation, for example, resulted in an average award of £8924 – this compares with, for example, an average of  £13,911 for sex discrimination claims, £14,130 for disability discrimination and a huge average award of £30,299 for employment tribunal age discrimination claims.

It was also interesting to compare the number of claims made – apart from the huge number of claims involving the working time directive [artificially inflated because of resubmitted multiple claims] and Unlawful Deduction of Wages Claims [there  were remarkably 71,300 of those], unfair dismissal provided the largest number of claims – 47,900. With regard to discrimination cases – equal pay claims dominated [34,600] with sex discrimination claims totaling 18,300. It was particular noticeable that age discrimination cases had almost doubled in 2 years to 6,800 – and given the huge size of the average award for age discrimination, this is perhaps one area where employers should take particular care.