EMPLOYMENT LAW

Employment Law

Bullying at
Work

Contracts of
Employment

Disciplinary
Policy & Process

Discrimination
at Work

Dismissal
at Work

Employment
Tribunal

Flexible
Working

Grievance Policy
& Process

Health & Wellbeing
at Work

Holiday Sickness
& Leave

Maternity
& Family

Misconduct
at Work

Pay &
Wages

Problems at
Work

Redundancy

Settlement
Agreement

TUPE
Transfers

Whistleblowing
at Work

Working
Hours

Employment FAQs

A settlement agreement is a legally binding agreement between employer and employee used when employment comes to an end and which protects both employer and employee from future action being brought by the other party. It provides a ‘clean break’. It is used in all sorts of situations including where there may be potential claims relating to: wrongful dismissal; redundancy; discrimination in the workplace; grievance procedures; disciplinary processes; bullying at work; sexual discrimination; misconduct; gross misconduct; and performance issues.

On average, solicitors charge around £500 (+VAT) to advise on settlement agreements. This fee payable to your own employment law solicitor will normally be paid by your employer. Fees for advising on settlement agreements will vary depending on (for example) why you have lost your job. If it turns out that you may be losing your job unlawfully, your employment law solicitor will tell you this, and if further work is needed in relation to your redundancy/ dismissal/ misconduct/ etc, they will advise you what those solicitor’s costs would be if you decided you wanted to challenge your employer in relation to your loss of job.

Yes, an employer must pay all (or a reasonable proportion of) the employees fees incurred in obtaining independent legal advice in relation to their settlement agreement. If the employer refuses to meet the legal fees, it potentially renders the entire settlement agreement void. For the settlement agreement to be binding on both employer and employee, the employee must taken independent legal advice, and the employer must pay those legal fees.

A disciplinary policy is the rules set by your employer setting out their expectations of their employees around things like conduct; performance; and critically also then setting out the process by which those matters will be managed if an employee’s behaviour or performance fall short of those ‘rules’.

You can usually find your employer’s disciplinary policy in their ‘office manual’ which is generally incorporated into an employees terms and conditions in their contract of employment. If your employer changes or updates the disciplinary policy during your period of employment they should notify you (and all colleagues) of any such changes.

A disciplinary process is the steps an employer must take to manage an employee who they believe is falling short of the expected behaviour or performance of their given role or job.

You should be able to find your employer’s disciplinary process set out in their disciplinary policy which is usually contained in what is called the office manual. That will set out the steps involved in the disciplinary process. The office manual usually forms part of your employment terms and conditions and will be referred to in your contract of employment as that.

How long is a piece of string?! There is however no specific requirement in law setting out the timeframes to be adhered to with a disciplinary process. The ACAS guidelines state that an employer should deal with any disciplinary process without “unreasonable delay”. What constitutes unreasonable delay is down to the circumstances of the misconduct or performance issues.

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