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

[Uyyyy]

A friend I used to work with recently confided in me that she had an 80k settlement (she was a high earner) after she claimed her boss didn’t like her as she was a single mother to two children with separate fathers and that he used to actively set meetings she couldn’t attend due to school pick up. She said she never had to even go to court, she just caused one hell of a fuss, went off sick and then they paid up. It turns out another friend from an entirely different company got six months pay for basically not much at all other than a fall out with line manager (large accountancy practice). I have also read the thread on here earlier about someone trying to get a settlement after being threatened with a PIP and posters saying to go for it etc… I am amazed by this, surely most companies take a hard line and force you to go to a tribunal rather than handing out a few months pay without the case even being heard?!

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

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.

£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.

@JustMarriedBecca paid off for what though?!

@FKAT what is a PRP?

Sorry I meant PIP - performance improvement plan.

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.

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.

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!!

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!

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 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 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.

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

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

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

Yup, I think in large organisations especially they are very common either to get rid of people who for whatever reason the firm doesn't like- rightly or wrongly- or to avoid the drama, hassle and expense of a lengthy complaints procedure.

I was a relatively high earner and very clearly had a case for discrimination so they did a complicated arrangement that allowed me to.walk away with a year's pay.

Other team members just resigned etc. Took them another 3 years to get rid of the guy who was the actual problem.

I work in a senior role in the public sector. It is quite common

You probably wouldn't know though.

I worked in a role where I saw all the agreements. You would be surprised how common they were. Sometimes to get rid of someone who was workshy, sometimes because their manager was an awful toxic bully (but baffling noone seemed to sack the manager)

Yes, this is what I saw, heaps of settlement agreements all relating to the same manager but the directors taking years to sack the actual toxic person

@madamweb in my case, and I think it's quite common, my boss was super senior and super loved by the CEO (who, frankly, wasn't a nice person either). After the CEO went, none of us were particularly surprised when our toxic manager left shortly thereafter.....(we have a support group. Seriously.)

It's also common if the person who is toxic is considered to be very valuable so a trader in a bank, a senior partner in a professional services firm etc. The person makes a lot of money, so the cost of having to rehire more junior staff is less important, even when those so-called "junior" staff are still on big salaries.

Sometimes, especially in firms like law firms or accountancy firms, if the person who is toxic is a partner, it can be difficult to get rid of them AND it is worse for the firm's reputation if a partner is potentially doing things that are bad reputationally, but the perception is that the best way to protect the firm is to protect the person.

Crikey, had no idea these things happened & wish I had. No wonder my line manager & HR wanted to talk to me when I decided to leave & sent them a list of reasons why!

Sadly yes. It's so expensive for big companies to go to tribunal as lawyers fees are so high.
I had a case where we paid out a huge amount for someone we'd made redundant before we even knew she was pregnant, she was about 8 weeks. She claimed discrimination which was not possible as we definitely didn't even know she was pregnant and we'd run a very transparent process based on well known objective criteria and she'd objectively not hit the bar. But it was just easier to cough up

Basically how my company operates - we're in tech so lay-offs and culls of talent are commonplace/happen on a regular tic. Overwhelming majority of people who are pushed out will get a decent settlement upon leaving as a matter of course, obviously in return for agreement of no further claims against the employer.