Our solicitors specialise in employment disputes, providing advice and representation to individuals anywhere in the United Kingdom. They have extensive experience advising employees on matters related to employment law, including compromise agreements. Employees are legally required by statute to obtain expert advice on the terms of the compromise agreement they are negotiating with their employer. Because employers also benefit from compromise agreements, many will pay any fees the employee incurs when obtaining that advice. Our solicitors are qualified to provide the requisite advice to employees about to enter into a compromise agreement. You can contact us today for a free initial consultation by phoning us on our helpline or filling out the contact form located on our website.

A compromise agreement is a legally binding document, signed by the employee and employer, containing the agreed upon terms of the termination of the employment. Compromise agreements came about as a result of a piece of legislation enacted in 1993, with the goal of legally binding both the employer and the employee to the conditions of a termination settlement. Important factors for both parties to bear in mind when crafting the agreement include statutory requirements, bargaining positions, personal and professional conduct and the terms of the employment contract. There are several reasons why employers are amenable to compromise agreements. First, handling the matter privately prevents the possibility of negative publicity due to information that comes out during a hearing. Avoiding a hearing in front of the Employment Tribunal also saves the employer money. Finally, the employer can be certain of the amount he will be paying to the terminated employee.

Certain requirements must be met in order for a compromise agreement to be legally binding. A valid compromise agreement meets all of the following conditions:

• All of the agreement's terms and conditions must be in writing.



• The employee must seek legal advice from a qualified professional before signing the compromise agreement. Acceptable sources of advice are a solicitor or barrister, a qualified trade union representative, a member of the Institute of Legal Executives provided that they are employed and supervised by a solicitor and a certified and authorized employee of an advice center.

The single most important factor for employees to keep in mind is that signing the compromise agreement causes you to lose your ability to bring a claim against your employer in the Employment Tribunal or other court. However, sometimes compromise agreements only cover certain topics, such as redundancy. If your compromise agreement covers limited topics, then while you're not able to bring a claim based on redundancy, you could still bring claims on other matters, such as discrimination.

It is not uncommon for an employer to try to get an employee to sign a "catch all" agreement, which amounts to the employee signing away all of his future rights to bring claims. Questions as to the legality of these all-encompassing agreements remain. Both employers and employees would be well advised to avoid these types of compromise agreements. An employee is not required to sign the compromise agreement if he is not satisfied with its terms. The offer can be rejected, and the agreement will be returned to the employer for further negotiation. When deciding whether to accept the first draft of an agreement, employees should keep in mind that an employer's initial offer is likely to include more favourable terms than what is required by law. If a disagreement arises, the employer may decide to resort to the minimum sum prescribed by statute, which could very well be less than what was previously offered.