Employment and workplace instruments · 05
Settlement and separation agreement
Ends the employment relationship and the dispute at the same time, finally.
Ends the employment relationship and the dispute at the same time, finally.
Full and final settlement in unambiguous terms; the payment, its tax treatment and its timing; withdrawal of any pending CCMA or Labour Court proceedings; the reference and announcement wording agreed in advance; confidentiality and non-disparagement; return of property; and the obligations that survive.
Whether the payment is a severance benefit, a restraint payment or an ex gratia amount changes its tax treatment entirely, and getting it wrong creates a liability after the ink is dry — settle the tax directive position before signature, not after. And where the agreement is to be made an arbitration award under section 142A of the Labour Relations Act, say so expressly; enforcement is otherwise a fresh contractual claim.
The law it sits under
What governs this instrument.
A settlement agreement concluded in the course of a dispute may be made an arbitration award by agreement under section 142A of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995, which is what makes it enforceable without fresh proceedings. Without that step, a settlement is a contract like any other and has to be sued on.
Related pages, tools and documents
Where this instrument sits in the wider set, and the engagement that produces it.
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