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

What would they be paying you for?

Oh. I'm just a basic employee...

I got 3 months pay 5k
So did a colleague recently
a friend was discriminated for her disability and git 40k
8ok is massive !

They don’t mess up, it’s just the easiest way for many, especially. a very senior person to exit.

say have a director on £200k a year. The CEO doesn’t like them, or the way the work, their results or the way they lead their team. They want them gone. You start a conversation, say it’s not working for me, I’ll give you £100k to sign a settlement and go.

Yes in the public sector but not usually for Things like this as you’ve described

its very common with senior leaders who can be tricky to get rid of through a traditional performance process or, to be honest, it’s just not worth while. The company Ask them whether you can come to an agreement for them to leave

it’s not usually an employee approach, although I’ve seen that too, if the company want rid of them anyway they can agree it

My last job was always doing them. Much safer than a tribunal and an assured outcome.

Not tax free but the company would sometimes cover the tax IME.

I’m a senior finance person and see multiple of these a year, in every company I’ve worked in. Not uncommon at all, I would say a significant number at the close to £100k mark and more

Fairly common in my line of work, charity sector. It's cheaper and easier going to tribunal. Tribunals are also public which is a reputational risk, whereas the public never find out about a quiet settlement.

Mostly it's the employers that have behaved badly and when they get legal advice they are told they've likely broken employment law and encouraged to settle. We're also heavily unionised and hey can help with negotiating out when employers have been shitty.

It's not usually huge sums though, typically 3-6 months pay (usually more like 3) plus paid notice and holidays.

Can this happen in the public sector? I have suffered unfair behaviour over the last few years at work that's making me want to leave my job. I don't have any evidence other than dated notes of things that happened and were said and why they were unfair. But that's all.

If you look at the Employment Tribunals decision website there are loads of cases where the cases have not proceeded. A good number of those must be because a settlement of some sort is agreed.
When my husband recently took his ex-employer to the ET for something very simple and a relatively small sum of money (failure to pay holiday wages due on retirement) the facilitator really pushed for the matter to be settled. I imagine many people do.

I think they are quite common. If there is a dispute between manager & report or the relationship has broken down, it's better to reach a legal agreement than go through a protracted performance process. I don't think there's any broad moral conclusion you can come to - each settlement is different. Sometimes the employee is at fault, sometimes the employer or sometimes nobody is. The business has moved on and doesn't need that role any more and settlement is easier than redundancy.

Tribunals - they can take years to get in front of a judge and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and legal costs aren't awarded - Allison Bailey's cost £500k+ and her award was around £20k IIRC. Fair play to all the people who do have the determination and courage to see them through. They are doing a great service to all of us.

BUT why would most go through them when you can sign a piece of paper and get a no-fault termination and move on with your life and career?

Also discrimination is not the only reason you'd go to tribunal - plenty of areas where a dismissal is unfair.

That's quite the statement @JHound !
Who do you think is lying,?!

We do them. Trust me, it’s money well spent to get rid of rotten or dead wood we don’t want around the place.

I am sure they are lying.

@Uyyyy it's often cheaper to settle a nonsense claim without an admission of guilt/liability and get NDA to shut them up than fight it in crt.
In cases where you've really screwed up its reputationaly better and cheaper to settle.
Otherwise you end up with headlines like nhs fife have.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/11/i-dont-have-to-tell-patients-im-trans-doctor-nhs-row/

Im an employment lawyer. They are common but not at £80k. Typical payment is your notice period taxed) plus 3 months pay.

I work in HR, they are incredibly common. Often used as a quick and risk free way to exit a troublesome employee from the company. Disciplinary/performance management processes can take up a lot of management time and carry the risk of a Tribunal - even if the claim is very weak, the businesss will still incur substantial legal costs to defend the claim.

Very common. They usually say you're not allowed to say what you got, or even that you agreed an NDA, so on the assumption that most people abide by that, then you'll only ever hear about the tip of the iceberg.

I had one about 20 years ago. New manager came in and we clashed massively. After a stand up argument one day in the open office, I was called in and offered 6 months pay plus holiday pay if I left immediately. My pen was on the paper before she'd even finished speaking!

I've also since worked in employment law and SAs are far more common than I realised (private sector).

It costs them £££££££ to defend all the way to conclusion if they are taken to tribunal. Even if the employee isn't in the right, it still makes commercial sense to settle. Plus avoids having name of company dragged through the mud.

The agreements are confidential so it's not like it's setting a public precedent. Your friend shouldn't have confided in you because that might put her in breach of the agreement which would mean she'd have to repay the money....

Hopefully you get my meaning. In my company it was just used to trim people who earned too much.

Very few people are be seen get them have deserved them. Usually they just earned too much.