Employers committing wrongdoing against their employees are increasingly likely to escape punishment, according to the Trade Union Congress in a press release on Thursday. The TUC said there was a 59 per cent drop in the number of single claims being taken to employment tribunals. These numbers showed that new fees were deterring workers from taking action against their employers, the TUC said.

Too expensive

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said in the press release: 'If an employer breaks the law and sacks someone unfairly, sexually harasses them or cheats them out of their wages, it's understandable that an individual should want to seek some kind of redress.' She added that the drop is not due to nicer employers over the past year, but said that filing a complaint against a bad employer has become too expensive for many workers, and that it is 'just plain wrong'. The figures show an 85 per cent fall in the number of claims for unpaid wages between January and March 2013 to the first three months of 2014. Over the same period, sex discrimination cases were down 80 percent and unfair dismissal cases were down by 62 per cent. Source: TUC Press Release.