Settlement Discussions Are Inadmissible In Judicial Review

The High Court held that settlement offers (and their rejections) are inadmissible as evidence, if those settlement discussions took place while conciliation proceedings were still ongoing.

Our firm recently acted for an employee ("Employee") who had filed an unfair dismissal claim against his former employer ("Employer"). While conciliation proceedings were ongoing before the Director General of Industrial Relations, the Employer made an offer for reinstatement, subject to certain terms (including delayed payment of back wages to be paid out over instalments) ("Offer"). The Offer was rejected by the Employee on the basis that he found the terms to be insincere and unreasonable.

As conciliation talks failed, the Minister of Human Resources made a decision to refer the dispute to the Industrial Court. The Employer thereafter filed an application for judicial review seeking to quash the Minister's decision. The application was premised on the basis that since the primary remedy sought in the Industrial Court is reinstatement, the Employee's rejection of...