Which statutory employment tribunal claims can be settled by settlement agreement, which cannot, and those without contracting-out provisions: a Great Britain practitioners’ checklist

Published by a LexisNexis Employment expert

Checklists

Contracting-out provisions

Most claims that can be taken to the employment tribunal stem from jurisdiction granted by statutory provisions. Each such statutory scheme contains a term that prevents the parties (or would-be parties) to an employment tribunal claim from entering an agreement that purports to settle the claim and, in doing so, purports to exclude the tribunal's jurisdiction to determine the dispute. These terms are commonly described as 'contracting-out provisions', and they appear in broadly similar form across a wide range of employment legislation, eg the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A 1992) and the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010). They are intended to safeguard claimants (and potential claimants) by stopping them from signing away the right to bring or pursue a claim unless appropriate procedural safeguards have been met. The fundamental rule is that any agreement reached between persons that purports to stop a person from making, or continuing with, a claim to an employment tribunal is void to that extent. This preserves access to the tribunal's adjudicative role unless the statutory safeguards are fully satisfied...

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Web page updated on 20/05/2026

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