Can a Settlement Agreement resolve workplace Personal Injury Claims?

Settlement Agreements can be used by employers to resolve ongoing workplace disputes with employees. A Settlement Agreement can also waive employees’ rights to bring personal injury (PI) claims, such as for physical or psychiatric injury arising from the workplace.

If an employer believes that that an employee has any specific PI claims, provisions can be made in the agreement to waive the right to bring these claims. The employee’s adviser will usually seek to specify any specific claims the employee wishes to bring.  Employers need to be aware that there are exceptions to the PI claims which employees can waive the right to bring in the future.

Employees are unlikely to waive their rights to bring future free standing PI claims that the employee is unaware of at the time they signed the Settlement Agreement. Even if a PI claim is included as a part of the Settlement Agreement, employees may be able to bring future PI claims and argue that the waiver is void under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Employers ask employees to agree that they are unaware of any incidents at the time of entering into a Settlement Agreement which may give rise to PI claims against them.
• Employers must include wording within Settlement Agreement stating that any latent free standing PI claims are to be excluded from the list of settled claims.

If you would like assistance with Settlement Agreements and seek advice on the claims that can and cannot be waived in such Agreements, please contact employment@mlplaw.co.uk.