Quick fire – March 2021
23 March 2021
An increase in employment tribunal claims, the annual uprating of Tribunal Awards and Uber driver rights are all covered in this month’s Quick fire.
Employment tribunal claims increasing
The latest quarterly employment tribunal statistics have been published for the period October to December 2020, showing an increase in multiple claim receipts (claims brought by two or more people based on the same facts) of 82% and single claim receipts of 25%, compared with the same quarter in the previous year. The increase, particularly in multiple claims, is likely to reflect increasing levels of redundancies and changes to working conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Disposals (whether by Acas settlement, strike out/withdrawal/dismissal or a full hearing) of single claims remained broadly stable during this period, with multiple claim disposals increasing by 66%.
The outstanding caseload, which was already at very high levels, has increased by a further 12% for multiple claims (51,000) and 36% for single claims (44,000). This reflects our experience that tribunal hearings in many regions are often being listed many months ahead, particularly for complex claims requiring multi-day hearings.
Tribunal Awards increase
The annual uprating of awards made by employment tribunals and other statutory payments will take effect in April.
The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2021 will make the following changes with effect from 6 April 2021:
- the maximum of a week’s pay will increase from £538 to £544
- the maximum amount of statutory redundancy pay will increase from £16,140 to £16,320
- the maximum compensatory award in a claim for unfair dismissal will increase from £88,519 to £89,493
- the minimum basic award for certain unfair dismissals (e.g. health and safety dismissals) will increase from £6,562 to £6,634.
Uber drivers to be given new rights
Following last month’s Supreme Court decision that Uber drivers are ‘workers’ and therefore entitled to rights under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) and to be paid the national minimum wage, Uber has announced that it will start paying all its drivers at least the National Living Wage for the period after they have accepted a trip request.
In addition, drivers will be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme into which Uber will pay a contribution, and they will receive holiday pay calculated on 12.07% of earnings, to be paid fortnightly. They will also be entitled to free insurance covering sickness, injury and parental payments, first introduced in 2018.
Drivers will still be able to choose when they accept trips. Uber has not announced whether it will be making any back payments in respect of any past entitlements, and they will not be paying drivers for the full period they are logged into the app, which the Supreme Court held amounted to ‘working time’ for the purposes of the WTR.
It is likely that other gig economy operators will eventually follow Uber’s lead, to avoid accruing liability for any similar claims in the future.
These articles are from the March 2020 issue of Employment and Immigration Law Update, our monthly newsletter for HR professionals. To download the latest issue, please visit the newsletter section of our website. For further information please contact Liz Stevens or another member of Birketts’ Employment Law Team.
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Liz Stevens
The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at March 2021.