Having thought that the matter was quite settled following the Court of Appeal decision in Simmons v Castle [2012] which established that employment tribunal claims for injury to feelings were subject to the same 10% uplift as general damages in civil claims, we now have conflicting EAT decisions.

In the latest EAT decision in the claim of Chawla v Hewlett Packard Ltd the EAT held that the uplift does not apply deciding not to follow two previous decisions from the EAT on this issue.  The issue must now be resolved by the Court of Appeal as 10% on some injury to feelings awards can be quite significant for some employees.

The latest EAT decision also appears to contradict the Presidential Guidance for employment tribunals on general case management effective from 13 March 2014, which took into account the 10% uplift when stating the bands that apply to injury to feelings awards.