Referrals to Employment Appeals Tribunal soar 56%

RISING job losses were to blame for a 56% increase in the number of cases referred to the Employment Appeals Tribunal last year, a Government spokesperson said yesterday.

Redundancy claims shot up from 300 in 2000 to 612 last year, according to the tribunal’s annual report, which was released yesterday. Minimum Notice claims rose from 1749 to 3216.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said there was a direct link between the increase in claims and growing job losses.

Holiday leave entitlement claims also shot up from 170 to 264 in 2001. The department spokeswoman said this was reflective of the growing numbers in part-time work seeking holiday leave.

Unfair dismissal claims were up from 808 in 2000 to 957 last year.

The number of claims before the tribunal went up 20%. Last year a total of 3,994 claims and appeals were disposed of, an increase of 795 on 2000.

Cases referred went from 3,377 in 2000 to 5,257 in 2001. The increased workload has led to corresponding delays in dealing with claims. The average waiting time for an unfair dismissals case to come before the tribunal went from eight weeks in 2000 to 13 weeks in 2001 in Dublin and 12 weeks to 19 weeks in the rest of the country.

Compensation totalling 861,654.99 was paid out by the tribunal in 163 cases, with five claimants receiving in excess of 25,001. Awards ranging from 1,001 to 2000 were made to 22% of claimants. The average compensation awarded was 5,286.23. Reinstatement was ordered in four cases and re-engagement in six.

Launching the report yesterday, Labour Affairs Minister Frank Fahey said the expanded jurisdiction of the tribunal had also led to an increased workload.

“It now has the powers to deal with disputes under 13 pieces of legislation concerning the termination of employment and disputes within employment,” he said.

“In the past year the Carer’s Leave Act, 2001, conferred jurisdiction on the tribunal to hear appeals from the decisions of the Rights Commissioner made under that act.

“The tribunal also has jurisdiction under two recent Statutory Instruments: European Communities (Safeguarding of Employees’ Rights on Transfer of Undertakings) (Amendment) Regulations, 2000 and European Communities (Protection of Employment) Regulations, 2000.”

The tribunal was established under the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, for the purpose of resolving disputes concerning employees’ entitlements to statutory redundancy payments.

It’s remit was subsequently extended to include responsibility for the settlement of disputes under various other Acts.