Tribunals award unprecedented payouts to stop increasing discrimination claims

EQUALITY: research finds that the legal profession is one of the worst for unequal pay

Employment tribunals are awarding claimants more money than ever before for discrimination, according to new research which also showed that the number of successful sexual harassment cases has more than doubled over the last year.

Total payments made by tribunals reached 3.88 million in 2001, a 10% increase on the previous year.

According to a report released this week by the Equal Opportunities Review, which looked at all 329 cases where compensation was awarded in 2001, the biggest increase in payouts came in disability cases.

The average award in a disability discrimination case rose by 85% to 24,202 compared to 2000's figure of 13,046.

The number of successful disability cases also rose to 56 in 2001 from 49 the previous year, including a record payment of 278,801 against Sunderland City Council.

The number of successful sexual harassment cases has shot up from 29 in 2000 to 62 in 2001.

Richard Hegarty, chairman of the Law Society's employment law committee, said tribunals were getting better at determining what claims were acceptable.

'Tribunals were finding their feet in the early days of discrimination claims, but they now have the confidence and the precedents to award big sums to claimants,' he said.

'There is a greater realisation that discrimination must stop, and awarding large sums against employers is one way of helping this.'

Elsewhere, a report released this week by the Equal Opportunities Commission found the legal profession to be one of the worst offenders in terms of unequal pay for men and women in the office.

The report, 'Equal opportunities and earnings among graduates' - a new analysis of a survey carried out in 1998 - claimed that female law graduates were paid an average of 18,500 three years after graduation compared to their male colleagues' 21,500.

This pay gap was only matched by mathematics and computing graduates.

Last year's annual statistical report on the profession, produced by the Law Society, found that across the country, male trainees earned 16,131, compared to female trainees' 15,194.

Anthea Grainger, immediate past chair of the Association of Women Solicitors, said: 'The AWS continues to be concerned about the possible pay gap between men and women who do the same job, and we'd like to see ongoing research into these issues.'

Victoria MacCallum