Total Annual Figures for Compromise Agreements, etc.

The request was successful.

Dear Barking & Dagenham Borough Council,

Please supply totals for the following:

Since the inception of Barking & Dagenham Borough Council, or as far as records go back, the annual figures for the total number of current employees or ex-employees of Barking & Dagenham Borough Council who have signed compromise agreements directly related to the resolving of dispute(s) / grievance(s) / internal and external investigation(s) / whistleblowing incident(s).

In addition to this, annual figures for the number of current employees / ex-employees who have agreed, following the matter being raised and made conditional as part of a compromise agreement drawn up by the body acting as Barking & Dagenham Borough Council's legal team, to forgo their right to approach the council in the future with Freedom of Information and/or DPA Subject Access requests under the relevant Acts.

Please note that I do not seek or require any personal information such as names and addresses – only the total figures for each subject area.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

Freedom of Information, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) Team this is
confirmation that your email has been received.
An officer of the council will shortly be in touch with you.


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ahmed remi,

Dear Paul Cardin

Thank you for your e-mail received 04 January 2011 requesting information regarding details of Total Annual Figures for Compromise Agreements.

Mike Lineker in Employee Relations will arrange for the information to be provided to you no later than 01/02/2011.

Whilst it is the Council's policy to provide information wherever possible, I need to advise you that there are a number of exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. These may prevent me from releasing all or some of the information you have asked for. You will, however be informed if this is the case and why.

Yours sincerely

Remi Ahmed
Corporate Complaints & FOI Team
Barking and Dagenham Direct
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
2nd Floor Roycraft House
Linton Road Barking
IG11 8HE
Phone: 020 8227 5788
Fax: 020 8227 5184

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Lineker Mike, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Cardin,

Request for information LBBD/51207

Your request for information about Compromise Agreements has been
considered and the information is attached.

If you are not satisfied with the way that I have dealt with your request
you can make a complaint by writing to the Corporate Complaints & FOI
Team, Room 104, Town Hall, 1 Town Square, Barking IG11 7HE. Alternatively
you can make your complaint on-line at [1]www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk or
you can e-mail your complaint to [2][Barking & Dagenham Borough Council request email].

If you are still not satisfied, after following our Corporate Complaints
procedure, you can take your complaint to the Information Commissioner.
Full details of how to do this will be made available on request.

If you need any more information, or if I can be of any further help,
please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Mike Lineker | HR Manager | HR Management Information & Performance Team

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham | 2nd Floor Annexe | Civic Centre
| Dagenham | RM10 7BN

Phone: 0208 227 2375

Fax: 0208 227 2806

E-mail: [3][email address] | www.lbbd.gov.uk

Working together for a better borough that is safe, clean, fair and
respectful,

prosperous and healthy, and where our young people are inspired and
successful.

P Protect the environment and save trees; please only print if essential

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/
2. mailto:[Barking & Dagenham Borough Council request email]
3. mailto:[email address]

Dear Mike,

Many thanks for your response. I appreciate the time you have
devoted to this query.

As your figures look a little on the high side, please could you
exclude compromise agreements drawn up in the following
circumstances and re-advise?

1. TUPE situations
2. Purely redundancy situations
3. Equal pay claims
4. Purely PILON (payment in lieu of notice) situations
5. COT3 agreements (where tribunal proceedings may or may not have
been initiated

I am aiming to research national trends and movements in this area
and am hoping to gain accurate information, and to provide a fair
representation of how often they are used for every English
council.

I trust that given the relatively small amount of records you will
need to work through, this task will not be too arduous.

many thanks in advance,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Lineker Mike, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

Dear Mr Cardin,

Many apologies for the delay in replying.

I am currently seeking information from our Legal Section in respect of your additional query and hope to respond by end of next week.

Regards

Mike Lineker | HR Manager | HR Management Information & Performance Team
 
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham | 2nd Floor Annexe | Civic Centre | Dagenham | RM10 7BN
 
Phone: 0208 227 2375
Fax: 0208 227 2806
 
E-mail: [email address] | www.lbbd.gov.uk
 
Working together for a better borough that is safe, clean, fair and respectful,
prosperous and healthy, and where our young people are inspired and successful.

Protect the environment and save trees; please only print if essential

 
 

show quoted sections

Dear Lineker Mike,

Thanks very much for the update,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Lineker Mike, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

Dear Mr Cardin,

Please find set out below additional information requested.

2005 - 2
2006 - 0
2007 - 3
2008 - 2
2009 -11
2010 - 9

Regards

Mike Lineker | HR Manager | HR Management Information & Performance Team
 
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham | 2nd Floor Annexe | Civic Centre | Dagenham | RM10 7BN
 
Phone: 0208 227 2375
Fax: 0208 227 2806
 
E-mail: [email address] | www.lbbd.gov.uk
 
Working together for a better borough that is safe, clean, fair and respectful,
prosperous and healthy, and where our young people are inspired and successful.

Protect the environment and save trees; please only print if essential

 
 

show quoted sections

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Hounslow Borough Council were one of the slower respondents of the 345 councils asked, taking 39 working days (19 days over the statutory period) to respond positively and in full.

Please link here to read about the further aspects of this request:

www.easyvirtualassistance.co.uk/page4.html

...including councils who have attempted to prevent individuals from exercising their statutory FOI / DP querying rights.

There is a growing trend for the use of compromise agreements, not just in the area of disputes or whistleblowing, but also in general redundancy or equal pay claims. Some councils have yet to answer this query - and to date, 65 working days have elapsed

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Here’s a piece of legal opinion from Senior Counsel Hugh Tomlinson QC, which appears to make more likely the prospect of public sector employers opting for Freedom of Information and Data Protection “gagging clauses” within compromise agreements; and thereby aiming to remove persons’ statutory rights to make data and information requests.

It has been an effective reputation management tactic, and a way of concealing the historical malpractice engaged in by employers when targetting whistleblowers or getting rid of people who’ve lodged grievances. The ruse has been deployed in the past by two councils; Cheshire West & Chester, and Brent.

The ICO are powerless to prevent it as the HT opinion implies that contract law takes precedence over a person’s statutory rights – which it appears can be surrendered. The ICO could only act if the recipient of any “ban” were to breach it and make an FoI or DP request of the relevant data controller – which is unlikely to occur because there’s always a “club over the head” of the signatory to the compromise agreement i.e. the threat of any monetary pay off being clawed back through the courts.

http://tinyurl.com/bu9vynx