Total Annual Figures for Compromise Agreements, etc.

The request was successful.

Dear South Ribble Borough Council,

Please supply Annual totals for the followig:

As far as records go back, the annual figures for the total
of current employees / ex-employees (including teaching staff) of the 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 (including teaching staff) who have agreed, following the matter being raised and made conditional as part of a compromise agreement drawn up by the body acting as the Council's legal team, to sign and 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 provide the figures in the following format e.g. 2006 - 2; 2007 - 4; 2008 - 1; 2010 - 6; etc.

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

Shingleston, Pamela, South Ribble Borough Council

Dear Mr Cardin,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your information request. We will
endeavour to respond as soon as possible and at the latest within 20
working days of receipt. In the unlikely event that this is not
possible, we will write to explain why and provide an anticipated
completion date.

If you have any queries please contact John Healey, ICT Manager, on
01772 625222 or by e-mail to [email address]

Yours sincerely,

Pam Shingleston
Technical Support Analyst
South Ribble Borough Council

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Whelan, David, South Ribble Borough Council

Dear Mr Cardin

I write further to your email request dated the 7th of January 2011.

You asked for the annual figure (as far as records go back) for numbers
of employees who have signed compromise agreements. You will appreciate
that this Council is a relatively small Council and hence the numbers
are that not great.

Having checked our records (and having spoken to our Human Resources
department) the numbers I have ascertained are as follows:-
1. 1998 - 1;
2. 1999 - 0;
3. 2000 - 0;
4. 2001 - 0;
5. 2002 - 0;
6. 2003- 1;
7. 2004 - 0;
8. 2005 - 0;
9. 2006 - 0;
10. 2007 - 13;
11. 2008 - 2;
12. 2009 - 9(these were actually COT 3 agreements but I have included
them for these purposes);
13. 2010 -0.

The 13 compromise agreements entered into in 2007 and the COT 3
agreements entered into in 2009 all related to Equal Pay Act claims.

I am not aware that there are conditions in any of these agreements
restricting the right of an individual to approach the Council in future
for information via Freedom of Information and/or Data Protection.
Indeed I would query whether any such conditions would be binding.

If there is any further information that you require then please do not
hesitate to contact me again.

Kind regards

David Whelan
Legal Services Manager
01772 625279

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Dear David,

Many thanks for your response. I am researching this subject and thank you for the figures. I would be very grateful if you could exclude compromise agreements / COT3 agreements reached in the following circumstances:

1. Purely redundancy situations
2. Purely PILON (payment in lieu of notice) situations
3. Equal pay claims
4. TUPE situations

I'm hopeful that now you have reached a manageable number, it won't be too difficult to go through them and re-advise,

many thanks in advance,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Whelan, David, South Ribble Borough Council

Dear Paul

If I take the Equal Pay claims out of the equation that leaves just four
agreements - there is one agreement in 1998, one in 2003 and 2 in 2008.

I have read the 1998 agreement and the two agreements in 2008. In none
of those agreements is there anything to be found that would restrict
the right of the individual (at a future date) to access information via
either Freedom of Information and/or Data Protection. This is as to be
expected.

Unfortunately I have not been able to trace a copy of the 2003 agreement
although I know from our HR people that an agreement was entered into.
Hence I cannot advise categorically as to whether there is any
restrictive condition but I have to say that it is highly unlikely that
there would be such a condition.

Kind regards

David Whelan
Legal Services Manager
01772 625279

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Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

South Ribble Borough Council were one of the quicker respondents of the 345 councils asked, taking 17 days 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