How much compensation do trade union claims award at an employment tribunal?

Across 33 UK trade union tribunal cases with a recorded remedy since 2017, the median total award was £5,657 and the largest was £223,146.

What percentage of trade union claims succeed at an employment tribunal?

Of 775 trade union claims decided on the merits by UK tribunals, 71% were upheld.

How many UK trade union employment tribunal cases are there?

Tribunal Watch has indexed 478 trade union employment tribunal judgments published on gov.uk since 2017.

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Trade union compensation & tribunal success rate — UK data (page 7) | Tribunal Watch

Claim pillar

Trade union employment tribunal cases — UK data 2017–present

Name: Trade union UK employment tribunal statistics
Creator: Tribunal Watch
License: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Tribunal Watch has indexed 478 UK employment tribunal cases involving trade union claims, published on gov.uk since 2017. Where compensation was recorded, the median award was £5,657 (the largest £223,146) across 33 cases. Tribunals upheld 71% of the 775 decided trade union claims. These cases name 395 distinct employers as respondents.

Total cases: 478
Median award: £5,657
Claims upheld: 71%
Largest single award: £223,146
Distinct employers: 395
England & Wales: 388
Scotland: 90

Compensation in trade union cases

33 cases with a recorded award

Median: £5,657
Mean: £20,815
25th percentile: £3,028
75th percentile: £13,947
90th percentile: £35,893
Largest: £223,146

Figures are the total award recorded across cases that include a trade union claim and a published remedy — 33 of 478 trade union cases. Many tribunal judgments decide liability only, with compensation set at a later hearing, so they are not counted here. A judgment combining several claim types contributes its whole award. Nothing here is legal advice or a prediction of any individual outcome.

Outcomes of trade union claims

989 adjudicated claims

Outcome	Claims	Share
Upheld	552	56%
Dismissed	223	23%
Struck out	106	11%
Withdrawn	68	7%
Other	38	4%
Settled	2	0%

Counting only claims a tribunal decided on the merits (upheld or dismissed), 71% of trade union claims were upheld — 552 of 775. Settled and withdrawn claims are excluded from that rate. Outcomes are recorded per claim, so a judgment can uphold one claim and dismiss another.

Trade union cases per year

2017–2026

Year	Cases	Trend
2017	12
2018	10
2019	79
2020	103
2021	37
2022	50
2023	77
2024	63
2025	30
2026	17

Largest trade union awards

Top 8 by total award

Case ref.	Decided	Claimant	Primary respondent	Total award
1601383/2022	8 December 2023	Mr. R C Wilson Additional Claimants: See the table at paragraph 3 below	Synthite Ltd	£223,146
1804383/2023	23 August 2024	Mr J Pallagi	FL Meat Realisations Limited	£145,352
2303729/2023	10 April 2024	Miss C Ibbotson (Counsel) For the	Mr J-P Van Zyl (Solicitor)	£72,864
2301303/2019	27 January 2022	Mr Javier Sanchez Ortiz	Mitie Limited	£37,915
4105290/2016	12 December 2017	—	WC Willis & Co Ltd	£27,803
4111447/2019	8 June 2021	Mr G McIrvine	Represented by:15 Mr Jay Lawson Solicitor Scottish Police Authority	£22,071
2410812/2018	21 May 2019	Mrs Liliana Martins Salvador	T & A Textiles & Hosiery Limited	£20,408
2500234/2021	30 December 2022	Mr P Emmerson	Northern Gas Networks Limited	£17,160

Top employers — trade union cases

20 ranked by case count

#	Employer	Cases
01	Cornerstone Community Care	23
02	Royal Mail Group Limited	20
03	Birmingham City Council	8
04	Homes and Communities Agency	6
05	Tesco Stores Ltd	6
06	The Secretary of State for Justice	6
07	North Tyneside Council	4
08	The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs	4
09	Unite the Union	4
10	Cammell Laird Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders Limited	3
11	Limited (in Liquidation)	3
12	London Underground Limited	3
13	Mitie Limited	3
14

All trade union cases

478 cases · page 7 of 10 · chronological

Case ref.	Decided	Claimant	Primary respondent	Jurisdiction	Total award
2302904/2018	4 August 2020	Mr W Gomez Tovar	Cleanwise Limited	England & Wales	—
1405483/2019	3 August 2020	Mr L Ali	First Greater Western Limited	England & Wales	—
2300549/2016	30 July 2020	Mr J Edwards	National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers	England & Wales	—
2504255/2019	28 July 2020	Mr A Collinson	Durham University	England & Wales	—
3314767/2019	19 July 2020	Mr F McKeever	Tesco Stores Ltd	England & Wales	—
2300475/2019	14 July 2020	—	Citizens Advice Merton & Lambeth	England & Wales	—
2402435/2020	10 July 2020	Ms S Marchant	Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust	England & Wales	—
1400510/2020

Methodology

Cases on this page are identified by first-pass extraction against the locked §4.4 claim-type taxonomy — a judgment enters the trade union caseload if trade unionis tagged in its classification output. A single judgment frequently combines multiple claim types, so the same case may appear on more than one claim-type page. Per-claim outcomes come from the second-pass (LLM-assisted) extraction and are recorded for each claim a judgment decides; the success rate counts only claims a tribunal decided on the merits (upheld or dismissed). Award figures are taken from the remedy section of each judgment where present; cases without a quantified award — because the tribunal only determined liability, or because the remedy hearing is pending — are excluded from the compensation figures. Regional splits follow the tribunal's jurisdiction as recorded on gov.uk. Nothing on this page is legal advice or a prediction of any outcome; for any specific matter the gov.uk judgment PDF linked from each case page is the authoritative source.