Bradford Council has paid out more than £100,000 for two successful employment tribunals bought by disgruntled school staff, it has been revealed.

From January 2009 to December 2011, 67 employment tribunal claims have been brought against the Council for issues such as unfair dismissal, alleged unlawful discrimination and breach of contract from Bradford schools.

In one claim, £79,000 was paid out and £21,000 for the second claim. It is not known which schools were affected or what the claims were for.

Out of the remaining 65 cases, 33 were withdrawn or thrown out by the tribunal panel, 14 are ongoing and 18 were settled before they got to the tribunal.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the Council’s executive member for children and young people’s services, said things had improved since the Council took back control for the district’s schools from Serco, which owned Education Bradford for a decade.

“There were real problems under the Serco regime and schools did not always deploy very experienced human resources advisors,” he said.

“As we become more integrated, we are working hard getting proper, effective advice to avoid money being paid out that ought not to be paid out.”

The schools included in the figures, released under a Freedom of Information request, include community schools where the Council is the employer of the staff at the school. Maintained schools, where the governing body of the school is the employer of the staff, are not included.

Pam Milner, regional spokesman for the union NASUWT, said many schools reached to private consultants for HR advice, who then told head teachers what they wanted to hear rather than providing impartial assistance, and that sometimes also applied to the Council’s advice. She said a lot of HR professionals had moved from Education Bradford to the Council.

“There is a lot of variation of quality in advice and that is something that needs to be addressed,” she said.

Ian Murch, the assistant branch secretary of the National Teachers Union, said “The 67 cases is not a big statistic in a workforce of 10,000.”