A settlement agreement can provide a good way for the parties to draw a line under the employment relationship whether by redundancy or otherwise, but are not mandatory and employers should use these where appropriate with advice from their solicitors. The Employees will be signing away their rights and the agreement can capture other terms for instance on confidentiality and post termination obligations – non bad mouthing, non solicitation etc. However to be binding the employee(s) will need to consult solicitors and may not be appropriate if the redundancy is straightforward and unlikely to be challenged and/or in circumstances where employees are only offering basic redundancy pay with no incentive for the employee(s) to sign away their rights.