To think settlements/compromise agreements can’t be THIS common…?!

My last two jobs I left with settlement agreements. Both were three months salary and both handles things appallingly. My union were magnificent

That isn’t correct. A settlement agreement settles statutory employment claims. Not just dismissal related claims.

My previous company did it a lot. The MD had an attitude of "I want this person gone, pay whatever it costs to make them go away". We worked in an industry where tendering for work was common and most tenders ask "has your company been subject to an employment tribunal in the last 5 years". So even if the company was confident they would win they would just settle to avoid damaging future business prospects by having to declare a tribunal

That's not a settlement Agreement if she kept her job.

A friend of mine got a 15 K payout from a major supermarketing because she slipped on a grape and sprained her ankle. All she did was send them a Solicitors letter saying she was going to take them to court for negligence and they paid straight out no questions asked.

I got one because company wanted to reduce headcount and didn’t want to report redundancies.
it was a very good offer, though sadly not £80k.

A lot companies will try and resolve a problem outside of a tribunal hearing, especially if there’s a chance they’d lose. Direct costs, disruption caused and reputational damage are all considered. Some companies may have to report tribunals during a tender process, or the general public may take a dislike, both impact future revenue.

On the other hand, some will never payout if there’s a chance they’d win as they’d feel it sets a precedent, and they’re big enough to withstand any issues with reputation - unless their barrister looks at the case and says they’d be unlikely to win it, in which case a years salary and a compromise agreement is likely.

You don’t hear about these because compromise agreements usually have a clause which prevents people from talking about it. Your friend may be pursued for damages for talking so openly!

I work in the public sector & I don’t believe it’s very common at all, not sure what evidence you would need to be honest!

Wow completely unheard of in the public sector I work in! I knew of one in 19 yrs & it didn’t even go to court, small pay out on a breach of health & safety. Crazy this seems so common & the amounts of money!!

Paid off from bringing a discrimination claim about unfair treatment during/after maternity leave. If you take a settlement agreement, you can't bring a claim to tribunal.

In my industry it's usually because a new senior hire doesn't think your face fits. But mine isn't something like financial services where salaries get REALLY crazy.

Sorry I meant PIP - performance improvement plan.

£80-100k is absolutely nothing versus the cost of a PRP which takes up the time of several senior employees (line manager, head of department, HR director, MD/CEO) over the course of 3/6/12 months. It's vanishingly insignificant versus the cost of defending an employment tribunal.

City law firm. Every single one of my friends was paid off within a year of returning from mat leave.
In some instances, my friends had other jobs in-house to go to all lined up.
All sums upwards of £20k.

So common.

But if you havent told them you are being bullied (and haven’t quit your job?) they wont have any reason to pay you off. They’d probably investigate the allegation first and try and resolve it

Dunno, compensation for bullying and having to quit my job? What are other settlements actually paying for?

Also it's not necessarily the employer that has messed up or done something wrong, they are used a lot to get rid of crap employees or those that an employer just doesn't want around anymore

It's not so much about the reason or issues someone has been complaining about, it's more about getting an employee out quick and having waived all their employment rights. The put the employer in a far better and neat position

Yes, once you account for how many senior managers behave like absolute wankers, that explains a lot about the risks of letting it go to tribunal / becoming public

Extremely common in salaried roles, they are used on almost all occasions someone needs to pushed out or to leave assp, from everything from gross misconduct to personality clashes.

The payout varies a lot though, some are very little and some are a lot.

Very common where large companies want to reduce headcount without publicly making redundancies. Professional services firms are well known for it.
The amount needs to be more that the redundancy payout would be so varies depending on years worked.

I was offered one recently (not professional services, mid senior in technology) but it was only my notice pay so refused and have been moved sideways instead. If it had been my notice period plus 3 months I would have taken it. I'm applying elsewhere now but the market is bad.

Super common most places I think. They make the company look sooo bad. I've been part of several and it's very frustrating because although you may have proof of the colleague lying (obviously not always the case, but sometimes!) unless you have an airtight case settlement is always the safer/cheaper/least brand damaging option.

I work in HR, they are very common. It’s really expensive to defend a tribunal even if the company isn’t at fault, or even manage performance sometimes if the individual is senior or wants to make a fuss - given the amount of management time etc it will take. Often the leadership team will see it as more commercial to quickly make it go away and save the time/money/aggro/bad PR.