Compromise agreements

The facts

Dr Hinton said he had suffered detriments as a result of making protected disclosures. He was made redundant and entered into a compromise agreement; this stated that it was in settlement of all claims, and included a long list of possible claims but did not mention protected disclosure. The issue for the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) to decide was whether he was entitled to bring this claim, or whether it had been compromised by the agreement.

The ruling

The EAT held that it is not necessary for the particular claim to be specified in the compromise agreement as long as the issues relating to the claim had already been raised. Hinton could not pursue his claim.

University of East London v Hinton UKEAT/0495/04