Add 10 Per Cent To Discrimination Compensation Awards?

From April 2013, as a result of the Court of Appeal case Simmons v. Castle, there was a 10 per cent increase in general damages for non-monetary losses. This was the Court of Appeal's implementation of one of the Jackson reforms, namely the recommendation from Lord Justice Jackson that there should be such an uplift in order to help claimants meet the additional costs and risks as a result of his other recommendation to abolish recoverability of conditional fee agreement success fees and after-the-event insurance premiums.

Up until De Souza v. Vinci Construction (UK) Ltd it was not clear whether such an uplift should apply to employment tribunal cases, given that the rationale for the uplift does not apply in the Employment Tribunal. However, employers should take note that the Court of Appeal yesterday decided in De Souza that such an uplift should indeed apply in the Employment Tribunal. The Court noted that s124(6) of the Equality Act 2010 requires that