Posted on 25/06/2020 under redundancy, Uncategorized,

To be legally valid, a settlement agreement must:

• be in writing.
• relate to a particular complaint or particular proceedings.
• only be signed after the employee has received independent legal advice from an identified advisor who holds the required professional indemnity insurance.
• state that the conditions regulating settlement agreements under the relevant statutory provisions have been satisfied.

The absence of any one of these stipulations will render the agreement null and void. In the case of Palihakkara v British Telecommunications Plc UKEAT/0185/06, the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that a compromise agreement (the former name for a settlement agreement) did not settle claims under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 or the Race Relations Act 1976 because it did not expressly state that the conditions regulating agreements under those statutes had been satisfied. The Court stated: “the absence of a clause confirming that the conditions in these discrimination statutes are satisfied is fatal … the statutes are plain and require a condition.”