UK: Statutory compromise agreements - advice may be given in group presentation if incorporated into individual advice

Employers can use group presentations to provide some of the necessary advice on statutory compromise agreements, provided those presentations are incorporated into the individual advice given by the named adviser.

A statutory compromise agreement requires an employee to receive advice from a named independent adviser on the terms and effect of the agreement. The Scottish EAT has endorsed the practice (common in large scale redundancies) of using a panel of solicitors, with one solicitor giving a group presentation (agreed by the panel) to all employees affected, followed by individual meetings with one of the panel solicitors.

Where the individual adviser refers to the group presentation, confirms the employee attended it, and provides a copy of the group presentation slides to the employee, the group presentation will be viewed as incorporated into the advice given by a different adviser at the individual meetings and may therefore satisfy the statutory requirements.

The EAT has also confirmed that there is no need for the employee to receive advice on the value of their claim or whether the deal offered is a good one.

Lady Smith also opined that, in relation to the requirement that the agreement refer to a "particular complaint", there was no need for an employee to have articulated the potential claim prior to its inclusion in a compromise agreement. However, this comment is obiter and stops short of confirming the effectiveness of listing out all possible statutory claims in the agreement, even where there is nothing to suggest to the employer that a particular claim is plausible. (McWilliam v Glasgow City Council, EATS)