ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû GLP Index: Employment law
Will demand for employment law expertise grow, decline or simply stay the same in 2023?
The ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû GLP Index pulls together the latest datapoints to provide some powerful predictions on the future of employment law.
Employment law in 2023
Out of the many practice areas of the law, employment law was one of but a few that frequently made headlines during the pandemic.
Remote working, mass redundancies, the Government's furlough scheme and a host of other changes to business as usual caused organisations of all shapes and sizes to seek the advice of employment law experts.
However, despite this supposed surge in demand, employment law workloads decreased significantly during 2020 and 2021.
How will employment law cope with the widespread change and challenges brought on by the current economic economy crisis? Perhaps surprisingly, the ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû GLP Index - which analyses historic data - forecasts growth in demand for employment law across 2022 and 2023.
This report captures a handful of the many trends driving change across employment law - we hope it adds value to law firms and organisations alike.
Dylan Brown
Content Lead, ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû
Overview of GLP findings
Demand for employment law has fluctuated in recent years - but a rebound is expected to continue in 2023.
That's according to the latest GLP Index, which pulls from hundreds of datapoints to predict demand for legal expertise across multiple practice areas.
The GLP Index found demand for employment law had been rapidly growing in 2017 and 2018, at +19% and +12% respectively. And while 2019 saw a comparatively small increase of 3%, demand dipped by -4% in 2020, and by -29% in 2021. While the index pulls into account a wide range of datapoints, this decline can be attributed to a massive backlog in employment tribunal claims, which sprung up as a result of the pandemic.
However, demand for the practice area is set to yo-yo yet again. The GLP index predicts that, despite today's current economic and political challenges, employment law will grow by +6% in 2022 when compared to 2021, and by +3% in 2023 when compared to 2022. While there are many factors influencing growth, this rebound can be largely attributed to a rise in employment tribunal cases being received and disposed.
Scroll down for in-depth research and analysis on the key trends driving change across employment law.
Employment law is predicted to generate 3% more work in 2023 than in 2022
Employment tribunal disposals experience a sharp rise
Uncertainty clouds annual statistics findings, but growth seems promising.
One of the central datasets for the ÀÏ˾»úÎçÒ¹¸£Àû GLP Index came from the Ministry of Justice's Employment Tribunal (ET) and Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) figures.
But comparing annual statistics is currently tricky. Annual statistics for 2020–2021 were not published due to the migration to the new tribunal case management system during March to May 2021. The latest annual report covers 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, and includes data for the 2020–21 financial year but does not include data for Q1 2021–22. Making direct year-on-year comparisons between the 2021–22 financial year and previous years is therefore impossible.
What the chart does show, however, is that 56,362 tribunal claims were received and 70,385 tribunal claims were disposed in the nine month period between July 2021 and March 2022.
For the 2020–21 financial year, we can see 117,926 tribunal claims were received (96,369 for July 2020–March 2021) and 41,622 tribunal claims were disposed (34,742 for July 2020–March 2021).
Making annual comparisons is difficult but the below chart reflects the raw numbers
Compensation awards spike in 2022
A notable year for compensation awards, but the overall outlook shows a different trend.
Another major trend impacting employment law is compensation awards. When looking at compensation awards made in 2021–22, tribunal statistics show 808 were issued in 2021-22.
The most common were unfair dismissal claims, with 633 awards being issued (up from 421 awards in 2020–21). Despite this spike, the number of unfair dismissal claims receiving compensation has been noticeably falling since 2010/11.
The second most common case type for compensation awards was discrimination cases, with 175 awards being issued in 2021-22 (18 more than in 2020–21).
When looking at the average (mean) award, sexual orientation discrimination claims received the largest figures compared to other discrimination jurisdictions, at £32,680. However, the highest award made in 2021–22 was for race discrimination, at £228,117.
Costs awards make a comeback
A brief breakdown of the costs awards being issued.
The GLP Index also looked at cost awards, which experienced a significant increase from 2020-21 to 2021-22.
In 2021-2022, 184 costs awards were made. Of these, 134 were made in favour of the respondent and 50 in favour of the claimant.
The largest cost award was £600,673 - a stark contrast from 2020-21's £36,833. The average (mean) costs award was £8,818 (up from £6,009 the previous year) - the median costs award was £2,500 (down from £2,962 in 2020–21).
A new wave of appeals floods the EAT
Find out how 2022 appeals fared compared to previous years
Another major trend was the sharp increase in the number of appeals.
In 2021-22, 1,726 appeals were received by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), up from 1,196 appeals in 2020–21. However, only 209 appeals were disposed of during 2021–22, much lower than the 752 appeals disposed of the previous year.
The numbers also show 325 appeals outstanding as at 31 March 2022 (compared to 281 as at 31 March 2021).
All you need to know about the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT)
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