Employment

Legal advice isn’t just recommended when you are offered a Settlement Agreement, it’s legally required, and it serves to protect your rights, your future, and your peace of mind. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, Settlement Agreements that waive your legal rights are only valid if you have received advice from an independent legal adviser. This law is in place to protect you from signing away important statutory rights without fully understanding the consequences.

Your Settlement Agreement legal advisor must be:

• Properly qualified,
• Professionally insured,
• Acting independently and solely in your best interest.

A solicitor will ensure the Settlement Agreement meets all legal requirements, including proper structure, legal wording, and valid certification. Without this, the Settlement Agreement will not be enforceable, and you could be at risk of unknowingly waiving important rights without the required protections. Your solicitor will explain what you are being asked to give up by your employer, check the legality of the terms outlined in the Settlement Agreement, and help you understand whether the deal is fair.

Once signed, a Settlement Agreement usually prevents you from bringing claims in the Employment Tribunal or Court, even if you later discover new facts. So, understanding what you are agreeing to is absolutely imperative.

Being made redundant isn’t the same thing as being sacked – it isn’t a result of anything you have done wrong and should only happen when your role within a company ceases to exist. If you are facing a redundancy situation, the responsibility is on your employer to make sure you are treated fairly, which ranges from exploring possible alternative employment to ensuring you receive the full redundancy package you are entitled to.

If you have been dismissed and your employer did not have a fair reason for dismissing you or they did not follow the company’s formal disciplinary process, you may have an opportunity to bring an unfair dismissal claim.

It is important to ask your employer for a written reason for your dismissal – legally, they must provide an explanation within two weeks of your request.

You only have three months less one day from the date your employment was terminated, so if you have been dismissed or threatened with dismissal and you don’t believe that any of these reasons apply, please contact us as soon as possible. If you have recently been unfairly dismissed (either for a fair reason or through a fair procedure) then we can help you make a claim at the Employment Tribunal.

If you have resigned from your job because you felt unable to work due to your employer’s actions, we may be able to help you make a claim for constructive unfair dismissal, as long as you’ve worked there for your employer for at least two years.

Constructive dismissal occurs when your employer has treated you so badly or hasn’t stopped others in the workplace treating you badly, that you have no choice but to resign.

Whilst your employer may wish to alter your existing contractual terms and conditions, due to a business reorganisation or economic reason, contractual terms in an employment contract cannot be changed without your agreement, unless this is permitted by the contract itself with a variation clause. Even if such a clause exists, it may not be effective unless carefully worded and a fair procedure followed – any ambiguity will likely be construed in your favour as Courts and Employment Tribunals often view such clauses as undermining trust and confidence considerations.

The Equality Act 2010 sets out four main types of discrimination:

• Direct Discrimination: This is discrimination against an employee because of one or more of the protected characteristics named above.
• Indirect Discrimination: This is where a policy or practice in the workplace causes a considerably smaller proportion of those with a protected characteristic to be unable to comply with the policy or practice than those who do not have the protected characteristic or who have a different protected characteristic.
• Victimisation: This is where an employee is treated less favourably because they have or might complain about discrimination or support someone else’s complaint about discrimination.
• Harassment: This is when an employee is subjected to unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct related to a protected characteristic which violates their dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. It can include behaviour that individuals find offensive even if it’s not directed at them, and even if they do not have the relevant protected characteristic themselves.