The number of claims received by Employment Tribunals has jumped 17% in the last year to 42,392, up from 36,336 in the previous 12 months, says GQ|Littler, the specialist employment law firm. The increase is “significantly faster” than the 7% rise that occurred between 2017/18 and 2018/19.

Partner Philip Cameron said it was unrealistic to expect to go through a huge change in working practices and a severe economic downturn without creating a sharp rise in disputes between employers and employees.

Many businesses have had to undertake mass redundancy programmes, while others have had to completely reengineer the way their employees work as staff moved to remote working because of the pandemic.

Cameron said there would likely be more employment claims along with more redundancies, adding:

“Given the economic turbulence caused by COVID-19, it is expected that redundancy-related claims will continue to flood the system when the furlough scheme ends.”