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 768 trade union claims decided on the merits by UK tribunals, 72% were upheld.

How many UK trade union employment tribunal cases are there?

Tribunal Watch has indexed 473 trade union employment tribunal judgments published on gov.uk since 2017.

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Trade union compensation & tribunal success rate — UK data (page 8) | 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 473 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 72% of the 768 decided trade union claims. These cases name 392 distinct employers as respondents.

Total cases: 473
Median award: £5,657
Claims upheld: 72%
Largest single award: £223,146
Distinct employers: 392
England & Wales: 383
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 473 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

982 adjudicated claims

Outcome	Claims	Share
Upheld	550	56%
Dismissed	218	22%
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Withdrawn	68	7%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), 72% of trade union claims were upheld — 550 of 768. Settled and withdrawn claims are excluded from that rate.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	12

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

473 cases · page 8 of 10 · chronological

Case ref.	Decided	Claimant	Primary respondent	Jurisdiction	Total award
1305860/2019	18 February 2020	In person For the	Mrs P Watts, HR Operations Director	England & Wales	—
2406144/2019	13 February 2020	EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 2406144/2019 & 4107637/2019 Mr R McConnell	Ainscough Crane Hire Limited	Scotland	—
2303909/2018	13 February 2020	Mr K Woods	Veolia	England & Wales	—
1601042/2019	12 February 2020	Mr E Sarantopoulos	The Metropole Hotel And Spa	England & Wales	—
2501803/2018	12 February 2020	Mr O Acedo & others (see attached schedule)	North Tyneside Council	England & Wales	—
3330654/2018	10 February 2020	Mrs M Simmons-Safo	Barnet Enfield And Haringey NHS Trust	England & Wales	—
3202908/2019	6 February 2020	Miss S Grivins	Wm Morrisons Supermarket plc	England & Wales	—

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.