Discrimination Injury to Feelings Awards Increased
The President of the Employment Tribunals in England, Wales and Scotland have uprated the financial awards for ‘Injury to Feelings’ from 6 April 2022.
Injury to Feelings is the compensation Employment Tribunals award for the upset and distress caused by discrimination and is set by 3 ‘bands’. This will increase the lower band to £990 to £9,900, the middle band to £9,900 to £29,600 and the upper band to £29,600 to £49,300
To help the Tribunals to know where to set the correct level of compensation, these 3 bands cover ‘lower band’ incidents such as distressing racist comments, the ‘middle band’ covering a pattern of bullying or a number of discriminatory acts, and then the ‘upper band’ which covers the very worst instances of discrimination, including years’ of bullying, physical violence and intimidation by an employer.
David Sorensen, Managing Partner said, “Whilst it always seems cold to try and put a financial value on an individual’s suffering from acts of discrimination, it is helpful for the Tribunals to have clear guidance. This increase reflects the importance of applying a punishment to discriminators in terms of the cost of discrimination. Given the sad rise in the numbers of discrimination cases that we are seeing, I hope that this increase acts as a better deterrence in addition to the other powers a Tribunal has to ‘name and shame’ discriminatory practices and harassment in the workplace including requiring an employer to improve its practices (known as ‘recommendations’) and other awards of compensation.“
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