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Equality Act flaw undermines compromise agreements, claim experts
A compromise agreement is a contract through which an employee or ex-employee can settle an employee's statutory claims with an employer and agree not to take further action against it.
But a drafting error in the Equality Act, most of which came into force on 1st October 2010, undermines the ability of employers and individuals to settle discrimination claims by insisting that the lawyer who advises an employee is 'independent'.
"There is a fundamental error in the drafting of the Act which means that any compromise agreement which seeks to settle Equality Act claims existent from 1 October 2010 is potentially unenforceable," said Edward Goodwyn, an employment law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM. "The reason for this is that 'independent adviser' is defined in the Act in such a way that it excludes anyone who is acting for a party to the compromise agreement."
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November 17, 2010
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