Total Annual Figures for Compromise Agreements, etc.

The request was successful.

Dear Maldon District Council,

Please supply Annual totals for the following:

As far as records go back, the annual figures for the total number 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 - 0; 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

Committee.clerk, Maldon District Council

Mr Cardin

Thank you for your recent request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act. Please note that our reference for your request is
F10/0218.

Please find detailed below the figures requested.

2008 - 1
2009 - 1
2010 - 1

Kind regards

Tara Bird

Committee Services Officer

Tel. 01621 875791 [1]www.maldon.gov.uk

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Dear Committee.clerk,

Thanks for your response. Please could you respond to the second part of my request i.e. How many employees have given up their statutory right as part of a compromise agreement to approach the council in the future with FOI / DPA requests?

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Committee.clerk, Maldon District Council

Mr Cardin,

Please note that in response to the second part of your Freedom of Information request, the answer is none.

Kind regards,

Helen Tarling
Committee Services Officer
Tel. 01621 876232
Fax. 01621 852575 | www.maldon.gov.uk

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Committee.clerk, Maldon District Council

Mr Cardin

Further to your email yesterday I can confirm that no employees have given
up their right as part of a compromise agreement to approach the council
in the future.

Kind regards

Tara Bird

Committee Services Officer

Tel. 01621 875791 [1]www.maldon.gov.uk

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Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Maldon District Council were one of the quicker respondents of the 345 councils asked, taking 20 working days (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