The number of claims brought against employers has risen by 39 per cent in a year, with judges warning that the growing use of AI is increasing the volume and complexity of submissions.
The backlog of unresolved individual claims rose by 55 per cent to 64,000 in the year to March, while the rate at which cases were resolved or rejected fell.
Applications for interim relief, which can allow a tribunal to order an employer to reinstate a dismissed worker or continue paying their wages, have increased more than 100-fold. Employment tribunal presidents Barry Clarke and Susan Walker said there had previously been about 20 applications a year, but “most offices are receiving a similar number each month”.
In meeting minutes, the judges said AI was “likely behind an increase in the complexity of claims, applications for reconsideration and applications for interim relief, as well as inflated schedules of loss”.
Jessica Bass, a partner at Oury Clark, said AI had made it quicker and cheaper for employees to produce lengthy submissions, sometimes resulting in a “kitchen sink” approach in which multiple claims are included regardless of their strength.
She said AI-generated claims could run to hundreds of pages and contain irrelevant or repetitive material, increasing the resources required to process them.
However, Danielle Parsons, an employment partner at Irwin Mitchell, said AI was not the primary cause of tribunal delays, which had “been a challenge for many years and pre-date...
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