... agreeing to a compromise agreement which would prevent her claiming for unpaid wages.
Mrs Smith was employed at Doncaster Council and was a member of the LGPS from 1987. In 1999, her employment transferred to the Rent Service. In 2006, she was made redundant and was offered an enhanced pension if she signed a compromise agreement which prevented her from making claims for unpaid wages.
Mrs Smith was unhappy with the compromise agreement in two respects:
In relation to the length of her service, Mrs Smith wrote to the Rent Service stating that she was not involved in the strike and enclosed payslips which showed that she had been reimbursed by Doncaster Council for those six days.
The Rent Service accepted Mrs Smith's position but stated that they could not change the length of her service in the compromise agreement. Instead they offered to pay her the sum needed to buy the six days directly from the pension provider( £38.39 for £3 extra pension a year).
Despite this offer from the Rent Service, Mrs Smith still refused to sign the compromise agreement and decided to lodge an appeal against her redundancy. This resulted in the offer for the enhanced pension being withdrawn.
It later emerged that Mrs Smith had not in fact been reimbursed for the six strike days and therefore had a claim for unpaid wages.
Mrs Smith reported the decision to withhold her enhanced pension to the Pension Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman dismissed Mrs Smith's complaint.
At the time the compromise agreement was proposed, both Mrs Smith and the Rent Service believed that Mrs Smith had been reimbursed for the six strike days. The Rent Service had no reason to think that she had a claim for unpaid wages. The Rent Service could not therefore be said to be acting unreasonably or other than in good faith, resulting in a finding of no maladministration.
This matter is very fact specific. A general point to consider is to ensure all issues and claims are flushed out at the point which the compromise agreement is proposed so as to avoid any conflict in the future. It is also important to check the employer and employee are in agreement of the facts of the employee's period of employment.