Dismissals & settlement (formerly compromise) agreements

We can provide advice and guidance on options and risks for settling any employment dispute in your organisation. Usually, but not always, this involves terminating the employment of an employee. Depending on the circumstances, it may be advisable to enter into negotiations with the employee through a protected conversation or a Without Prejudice conversation, either of which may lead to the employee agreeing either that the dispute is settled or leaving the organisation in exchange for terms, usually including a sum of money as compensation. Where this happens, the terms are agreed between the parties in a legal document called a settlement (formerly compromise) agreement. The signing of such an agreement prevents the employee from raising a complaint for the majority of breaches of employment law in employment tribunal. Other than terminating employment, such agreements are useful for resolving disputes over matters such as holiday pay.

This is a specialist area; for any such agreement to be enforceable and to truly remove the risk of employment tribunal claims, there are key steps that need to be in place, including a requirement for the employee to be legally advised on the rights they are signing away when they enter into the agreement. We have considerable experience in this area, in a wide range of complex and unusual employee circumstances. We can add value by:

  • Meeting with the employee (and their representative should they have one) to discuss and agree terms for their exit on behalf of the employer (within pre-agreed parameters)
  • Formalising the offer to the employee
  • Drafting a settlement agreement suitable to the circumstances and gaining legal approval and client approval for this
  • Liaising with the employee’s legal advisor to handle and resolve queries arising from the settlement agreement
  • Ensuring the documents are signed and appropriately finalised and stored; communication to all parties.

Settlement agreements start from £1,060 + VAT.

Please contact us in confidence for more information and to discuss this further.