The Government has this week published a key amendment to the
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. Whilst the Bill's
intention is to prevent Employment Tribunals, when they are hearing
claims of unfair dismissal, from taking into account any
pre-termination settlement offers or discussions, the proposed
clause raises a number of questions as to how it would work in
practice.
On 11 June 2012, the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, announced
that he would amend the bill to facilitate and increase the use of
settlement agreements (currently known as "compromise
agreements"), enabling employers to have pre-termination
discussions with employees without fear of what was said during
such discussions being referred to in unfair dismissal
proceedings.
