It pays to settle earlier

An EAT made an employee pay part of the costs for not considering his ex-employer’s settlement offer until the day of the appeal hearing.

In the case of G4S Security Services (UK) v Rondeau an ex-employee obtained a tribunal judgment against his former employer. The employer appealed and also made an offer to settle the proceedings. The employee rejected the offer so preparations for the appeal continued with both parties incurring further costs.  The employee rejected the offer again, and then finally accepted it on the day of the hearing.

The EAT held that although the employee had a judgment in his favour, and was entitled to resist the appeal, he was also under a duty to consider settlement offers made in the meantime.  The employee was found to have acted unreasonably in failing to consider two identical offers beforehand and ordered him to pay a proportion of the costs incurred by the employer since the first settlement offer was made

So, employers can, where appropriate, continue to make reasonable settlement offers to claimants throughout proceedings and may have a good argument for applying for costs if the offers are ignored.