Fife Council - Compromise Agreements

Stefan Cross has written to clients in Fife Council - because employees in Fife may be able to challenge the Compromise Agreements that people were required to sign in 2006 - before the council released their equal pay 'compensation' payments.

Please see previous posts on this issue - including the one dated 1 October 2008.

The feedback from many employees in Fife is that they were not given a proper standard of advice from the 'independent' lawyers who signed their Compromise Agreements.

Many people in Fife say:

1 That their interview with the council appointed lawyer lasted only a few minutes

2 That their lawyer could not explain the basis of the council's proposed settlement

3 That their lawyer did not offer any practical advice about the risk of pursuing a claim to the employment tribunals or the value of the claims

Fife Council has already confirmed that senior managers appointed a single legal firm to advise council staff.

Quite how the council went about this appointments process has still to be made clear - so are the details of the brief given by council managers to these 'independent' legal advisers - whom the council subsequently paid a large sum of public money.

The answers to these questions are vital - because the compromise agreements are only excluded tribunal claims if they have complied with certain conditions.

It is the council that has to prove these conditions were met. If they fail to do so they you can still claim for the whole of the 5 year back pay period and to date, i.e. 2009.

Fife clients are being asked to provide copies of their Compromise Agreements to the Stefan Cross office in Newcastle - so that individual details can be properly assessed.

Similarly, if anyone has retained copies of the literature that was handed out at these advice sessions - presentations, handouts etc – all information would be gratefully received.

If you need further advice, ring 0845 300 3 800 or contact Mark Irvine at: markirvine@compuserve.com