Settlement Agreements

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Whatever the reason is that you have been given a settlement agreement, be it redundancy, facing termination due to stress, poor health or performance issues, or if your employer is completing a general restructuring, we can help you.

Efficient: where terms are already agreed with your employer, we will aim to turn the agreement around for you the same day, or the following day.

Making your life easier: we will issue the agreement to you for signature via doc-u-sign, so you don’t have to worry about printing and scanning the agreement.

Costs: where terms are agreed, we will just charge whatever your employer has provided for in the agreement, so no costs are payable by you.

Experience: we have over 20 years of experience in advising individuals on their settlement agreements.

Reviews: don’t just take our word for it – see what people have said about us

Negotiations: we can, where applicable, negotiate on your behalf with your employer to increase your compensation package.

Settlement Agreement Reviews

Settlement Agreements – what are they?

A Settlement Agreement is a legally binding contract made between an employer and employee. Employers usually offer settlement agreements when they are terminating someone’s employment, or if there is an ongoing dispute they want to resolve. Settlement Agreements were previously called Compromise Agreements.

For a Settlement Agreement to be legally binding:

  • the agreement must be in writing, and it must relate to a specific complaint or proceedings which they are settling.
  • an independent legal adviser must have informed the employee of the terms and effect of the proposed agreement, and the impact it would have on their ability to pursue that complaint or proceeding before an Employment Tribunal.
  • the agreement must identify the adviser, and their advice must be covered by insurance.
  • the agreement must state that the conditions regulating settlement agreement under the Employment Rights Act 1996 have been satisfied.

Normally, the employer pays the employee’s legal fees for entering the Settlement Agreement. That contribution can vary from £350 + VAT – £1,000 + VAT.

The Settlement Agreement should clearly state what payments the employer is paying to the employee for entering the Settlement Agreement. That will normally consist of wages and accrued but untaken holiday to the termination date, plus notice pay and normally a ‘tax free’ payment – up to £30,000 can be paid ‘tax free’.

Claims you can settle under a Settlement Agreement

ACAS recommends that someone should be given 10 days to consider the offer contained in a Settlement Agreement. However, matters are often resolved a lot quicker than this, though an employee should not feel as though they are being forced or rushed into signing.

The Settlement Agreement will settle all claims arising out of the employee’s employment and its termination and it will cover claims linked to breach of contract, complaints  about bonuses and commission, disputes about wages, discrimination (race, sex, disability etc) including sexual harassment, TUPE, flexible working, contracts of employment, unfair dismissal on matters such as redundancy, poor performance, misconduct and ill health, plus a whole host of other legal claims.

 

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Claims you can settle under a Settlement Agreement

  1. for breach of contract or wrongful dismissal;
  2. for unfair dismissal, constructive unfair dismissal and related claims, under sections 93 and 111 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 whether arising out of the variation of employment contract or otherwise;
  3. for a statutory redundancy payment, under section 163 of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  4. in relation to an unauthorised deduction from wages or unauthorised payment, under section 23 of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  5. for an unlawful detriment under section 48 of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  6. in relation to employment particulars and itemised pay statements, under section 11 of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  7. in relation to guarantee payments, under section 34 of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  8. in relation to suspension from work, under section 70 of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  9. in relation to parental rights and flexible working, under sections 80 and 80H of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  10. in relation to time off work, under sections 51, 54, 57, 57B, 60, 63, 63C and 80N of the Employment Rights Act 1996;
  11. in relation to working time or holiday pay, under regulation 30 of the Working Time Regulations 1998;
  12. in relation to the national minimum wage, under sections 11, 18, 19D and 24 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998;
  13. for equality of terms, under sections 120 and 127 of the Equality Act 2010 and/or section 2 of the Equal Pay Act 1970;
  14. for pregnancy or maternity discrimination, direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to sex, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity or gender reassignment under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 and/or direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to sex, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity under section 63 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975;
  15. for direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to race under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 and/or direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to colour, race, nationality or ethnic or national origin under section 54 of the Race Relations Act 1976;
  16. for direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to disability, discrimination arising from disability, or failure to make adjustments under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 and/or direct discrimination, disability-related discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to disability or failure to make adjustments under section 17A of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995;
  17. for breach of obligations under the Protection of Harassment Act 1997;
  18. for less favourable treatment on the grounds of part-time status, under regulation 8 of the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000;
  19. for less favourable treatment on the grounds of fixed-term status, under regulation 7 of the Fixed-Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002;
  20. for direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to religion or belief, under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 and/or under regulation 28 of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003;
  21. for direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to sexual orientation, under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 and/or under regulation 28 of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003;
  22. for direct or indirect discrimination, harassment or victimisation related to age, under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 and/or under regulation 36 of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006;
  23. in relation to the duty to consider working beyond retirement, under paragraphs 11 and 12 of Schedule 6 to the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006;
  24. under regulations 27 and 32 of the Transnational Information and Consultation etc. Regulations 1999;
  25. under regulations 29 and 33 of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004;
  26. under regulations 45 and 51 of the Companies (Cross-Border Mergers) Regulations 2007;
  27. under paragraphs 4 and 8 of the Schedule to the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006;
  28. under sections 68A, 87, 137, 145A, 145B, 146, 168, 168A, 169, 170, 174 and 192 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992;
  29. in relation to the obligations to elect appropriate representatives or any entitlement to compensation, under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006;
  30. for failure to comply with obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998;
  31. for failure to comply with obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018;
  32. in relation to the right to be accompanied under section 11 of the Employment Relations Act 1999;
  33. in relation to refusal of employment, refusal of employment agency services and detriment under regulations 5, 6 and 9 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010; in relation to the right to request time off for study or training under section 631 of the Employment Rights Act 1996; and
  34. arising as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union; or withdrawal from the European Union including but not limited to any claim arising under EU treaties or EU legislation as given effect in England and Wales until 11pm on 31 December 2020, and any claim under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 or the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020;
  35. a claim arising under retained EU law as defined in section 6(7) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018;
  36. breach of the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004;
  37. any personal injury claim resulting from the Employee’s employment with the Company of which the Employee was aware as at the date of this agreement;
  38. failure to provide written reasons for dismissal; and
  39. any other claim whether known or unknown to the parties and whether presently known in law (including for the avoidance of doubt any injury arising from alleged unlawful discrimination).