In Person For the v Respondent — 2020

The claimant presented his claim on 5 July 2019. The tribunal recorded that the ET1 advanced Equality Act complaints based on race and religious discrimination arising from his employment with Peabody Group. The respondent applied to have the claim dismissed on the basis that the claimant had entered into a binding settlement agreement covering the claims.

Employment Judge Britton found that there had been negotiation on the claimant's behalf, that he was kept informed throughout by his Unison official Jonathan Okwuofu, and that the terms were agreed and reduced into a settlement agreement. The agreement was said to satisfy the requirements of s.203 ERA 1996 and, in relation to Equality Act matters, s.147 Equality Act 2010. The agreement was stated to cover all potential heads of claim arising out of the employment, including unfair dismissal, redundancy, notice pay, holiday pay and Equality Act claims.

The tribunal found that the claimant received independent legal advice through Thompsons. The reasons record that he consulted Thompsons on 17 September 2019, signed the agreement on 18 September 2019, and that the advisor's certificate complied with the statutory requirements. The respondent signed on 30 September 2019. Although payment was made on 16 October 2019 after the claimant had complained about delay, the tribunal held that this did not prevent the agreement from being binding.

The tribunal therefore held that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the claims and dismissed the case for want of jurisdiction. The judgment also notes the claimant's concern that he had received inadequate advice from Thompsons, but the tribunal said that any complaint on that basis would lie against Thompsons rather than affecting the validity of the settlement agreement.