If your employer has offered you a settlement agreement, it is imperative that you seek independent legal advice before signing it, otherwise the agreement will not be legally valid. If your employer does not cover the cost of any fees you may incur, you will need to speak to a lawyer or union representative. Under section 11A(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, whistleblowing is an exception to the protected conversation rule, known as confidential termination negotiations. Basically, an employer never has a guarantee that you won`t report them, even after signing an agreement. For example, you can`t get the settlement money back because you reported your fraud after receiving your settlement payment. If you are asked to sign a settlement agreement that includes a confidentiality clause, you should be aware that there are limits to what can be legally gagged by your employer. In fact, as you will read below, confidentiality clauses cannot be used to intimidate or silence whistleblowers. Similarly, your employer cannot use any legal mechanism in the settlement agreement to prevent you from taking any of these steps. For example, under the terms of the regulations, you may not be asked to guarantee that you do not know any reason why you are reporting under the Public Interest Disclosure Act, 1998 if you are not. Your employer may ask you to give them compensation (i.e., a promise to pay them compensation) if you decide to violate the terms of the settlement agreement and bring an action in the Labour Court for essentially the same reasons. Normal seniority requirements do not apply in an information case, so if you normally have to be employed for 2 years to request a constructive or wrongful dismissal, there is no minimum service requirement in a whistleblower case. This is very useful to help you overcome this 2-year service rule in a trial (or court). However, the aforementioned Law on Disclosure of the Public Interest provides that if an employee receives confidential documents, this will not be considered a violation of his employment contract as long as the documents of an appropriate person are disclosed and/or used by a denouncing labor court.
Disclosure of personal complaints and disputes, such as bullying in the workplace, is not considered whistleblower unless the matter is in the public interest. However, these confidentiality clauses may be considered unenforceable and void by a court if they prevent the employee from engaging in denunciations. In UK labour law, whistleblowing is « protected disclosure » under the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA). This Act itself amended the Employment Rights Act 1996 so that it is the 1996 ERA that you can also refer to. After a disagreement or problem in the workplace, employers can propose a settlement agreement to the employee concerned. 2. Claim damages for breach of contract. Since it is difficult to estimate the monetary value of the breach of settlement agreements, the amount of damages awarded by the Labour Court varies considerably. Whistleblowing is a way to ensure that your employer`s misconduct ends when you leave your job and hopefully get a settlement agreement to help you until you get a new job. Confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements are common and are generally intended to prevent employees from disclosing information about the settlement, the amounts the employee receives under the agreement, and the factual history leading to the settlement. These clauses are sometimes referred to as « non-disclosure agreements » (NDAs) or « gag clauses ». It`s surprising how many employers would rather take advantage of their opportunities with bad publicity than make a settlement payment to someone they think is a « boring » employee.
If you are an employee and report certain types of misconduct, you may be classified as a whistleblower and fall under the Whistleblower Act. Therefore, there must be an element of trust in the settlement of a whistleblower claim. .