Cutting deals

One won, one lost, 28 "sorted", one way or another, and 4 still to be decided.  Overall, two-thirds settled out-of-court. Cost to BBC so far £600k, plus the time and salaries of HR specialists, in-house lawyers, and the witnesses called on both sides.  That's the story of industrial/employment tribunals at the Beeb in 2009/10, as discovered by an FoI request just published on the excellent What Do They Know? site.
 
1.  In the last financial year (2009/10), how many employment tribunal claims were taken against the BBC? 
34 Claims (by 33 claimants) 

2.  What was the estimated total cost in defending these claims? Do not include costs covered by any insurance policy. 
For industrial and employment tribunals for the financial year 2009/10, the fees for our external specialist counsel/solicitors amounted to £203,627 plus VAT.  In house employment lawyers also acted on these cases. 


3.  How many of these claims were won by the BBC?
One Claim was won in its entirety: One Claim was won on all counts apart from Unfair Dismissal
 
 4.  How many of these claims were lost by the BBC? 
One Claim was lost in part - Unfair Dismissal
  
5.  How many were settled and what was the total cost? 
22 Claims settled:  Total cost £ 379,125.  In addition, £24,386 plus VAT was paid as a contribution towards Claimant’s legal costs. 

6.  How many have not been concluded?
Four.  The other five claims were withdrawn or dismissed.