Case study: Settlement agreement secures reference and over £10,000

Summary

How Chris Hadrill secured a an agreed reference and a payout of over £10,000 for an insurance salesman through a Settlement Agreement after serious allegations were made against the salesman and he was given a written warning as a result of making a protected disclosure (also known as “whistleblowing”).

The situation

Sam (not his real name), an insurance salesman, submitted complaints to the Financial Conduct Authority and Information Commissioner’s Office that his employer, a large insurance company, disclosing information that they were potentially breaking the law (also known as “whistleblowing”). Sam told his employer that he had made these disclosures.

He was invited to a grievance hearing to discuss his complaints but this grievance hearing was converted to a disciplinary hearing and almost twenty serious allegations (including sexual harassment in the workplace by Sam) were made against him – this was particularly serious as Sam’s girlfriend worked in the same office as him and he was worried that she would believe the allegations being made.

The majority of these serious allegations were unfounded and were subsequently dropped. However, although there was no evidence against him, Sam was subjected to a disciplinary process and told that this might even result in his dismissal. He was then told that he was going to be given a written warning for two of the minor allegations against him.

What Redmans Solicitors did

Chris Hadrill, an employment solicitor at Redmans Solicitors in London, threatened Sam’s employers with an Employment Tribunal claim for automatic unfair dismissal and detriments due to protected disclosure (also known as “whistleblowing”)

Chris was working on a no win no fee basis in this case, which allowed Sam to instruct solicitors to give him advice and negotiate on his behalf as he couldn’t afford to pay hourly fees.

The result

Before Sam was issued with the written warning, Chris wrote to Sam’s employer and negotiated an agreed reference and a payout of over £10,000 for Sam – this represented about six months’ wages for Sam. Within two weeks of his case being settled, Sam secured work. Without the agreed reference, this would have been a lot more difficult.