According to the Human Resources consultancy firm, Peninsula, more and more employees are taking their employers to tribunals.
The number of tribunals in 2002 were 105,000. In 2003 that number rose to 127,000.
Our View
Whilst there is more and more red tape being introduced by the Government in terms of health and safety legislation, employers are also becoming more demanding. Employees are also becoming more aware of their rights with greater access to information via the internet. We do understand that some employees will have justifiable grievances that need to be referred to tribunals but others may just be jumping on the bandwagon. We also believe that the numbers have increased over the past few years because of the Part Time Worker pension cases, being brought against many councils and government departments. These tribunals relate to part time workers not being allowed to join company pension schemes, when their full time counterparts were allowed to join.