‘Protected conversations’ were introduced in July 2013. A ‘protected conversation’ allows an employer to have a conversation with an employee with a view to terminating his or her employment under a settlement agreement, without the employee being able to rely on the details of the conversation as evidence in an unfair dismissal claim.
This is different to the previous position in that such protection only applied where a formal dispute had already arisen, such as a prior performance improvement plan, or disciplinary proceedings, or similar.
Note that this provision is limited to standard unfair dismissal claims only.
No protection will be afforded where the reason is automatically unfair.
Comments