7 November 2013: Living Wage Increases:

We recently reported on the annual increase to the National Minimum Wage. On the 5 November 2013 the Living wage rose by 25 pence:

to £8.45 for London (£2.14 more than the NMW), and;
to £7.45 for the rest of the UK.

Employers though are of course not obliged to pay the Living Wage, which is a voluntary scheme. See the Living Wage Foundation

Tribunal Statistics: Fees to issue Employment Tribunal claims were introduced in July (see our bulletin) and many employers will be interested to see how that affects the number of claims being brought.

Statistics published this week show that claims ranged between 5,066 in January to 4,421 in June. This increased to 7,307 (just before fees came in) but fell to 3,645 in August and just 1,117 in September 2013. Presumably, numbers will pick up again, especially when Claimants become more familiar with the remissions system, but the figures suggest that there may be a drop in claims in the longer term.

The statistics also show that:

the median award for unfair dismissal rose slightly to £4,832 but most claimants received awards of between £1,000-1,999.
the median award fell for all discrimination claims, (apart from religious discrimination).
Disability had the highest median award for discrimination claims of £7,536.
There were 48 cost awards in favour of a respondent of over £10,000.

Of course we will never know about the claims that settle before they ever get to the Tribunal. However these statistics will cheer many employers but worry employees. See the MoJ statistics.