The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has once again considered whether the 10% uplift in damages in civil proceedings, which was introduced by the Court of Appeal in Simmons v Castle (2012), should be applied to awards in the Employment Tribunal for personal injury and injury to feelings. In De Souza v Vinci Construction UK Ltd (2015), the EAT has decided that the 10% uplift does not apply to awards for injury to feelings.

Photograph: Egrien

The claimant in the De Souza case had been awarded £9,000 in respect of injury to feelings and £3,000 in respect of personal injury after a successful claim at the Employment Tribunal. To both awards the Tribunal had added a 10% uplift following the reasoning in Simmons v Castle. The Tribunal decision has now been overturned following appeal to the EAT.

In De Souza the EAT decided that the Court of Appeal in Simmons v Castle had not meant for the 10% uplift to apply to discrimination claims. The purpose of the uplift was to apply to damages for civil claims, such as personal injury. The EAT further noted that if the uplift been meant to apply to injury to feelings then the Court of Appeal would have expressly said so.

The De Souza decision follows Chawla v Hewlett Packard, but is in direct opposition to the stance taken in two earlier EAT decisions: The Sash Workshop Window Ltd v King and Cadogan Hotel Partners Ltd v Ozog. It is expected that the Court of Appeal will review the De Souza case later this year.