Record £100,000 costs awarded at Employment Tribunal
Pertemps chairman Tim Watts has been awarded £100,000 in costs after a former employee made false claims of sexual harassment, discrimination and victimisation against him. The allegations made by his former executive, Debbie Smith, who was dismissed after P Investments, the Pertemps subsidiary she was running, made a loss of £250,000, were ruled totally unfounded following an employment tribunal earlier this year.
Ms Smith claimed that Mr Watts had made degrading and offensive comments to her which amounted to sexual harassment, including calling her a “sexy nurse.” The tribunal accepted Mr Watts’ evidence that the assertions were entirely false, and a “pack of lies” as he had argued. According to Pertemps, Ms Smith has agreed to pay £100,000 in costs to Mr Watts. £100,000 is said to be the record costs award given that the Employment Tribunal usually has a cap of a £10,000 award as a maximum sum for unreasonable behavior.
Unlike litigation in the civil courts, costs orders in the Employment Tribunals are the exception rather than the rule. An employer successfully defending a claim against it can only recover its legal costs of doing so if it can show that the claimant behaved “vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably” or that bringing the case was “misconceived.” The Employment Tribunal’s award costs in only 0.2% of cases, and even then the level of award is often much lower than the legal costs incurred.
Justine Watkinson, Partner and Head of the Employment Law Department at Hillyer McKeown comments; “ It remains to be seen whether the results of the Government’s ongoing review of employment law regulations suggests anything similar to ease the worries of the employers. This case shows that employers do have some redress against employees who bring false claims”.
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