AROUND £650,000 of taxpayers' money has been handed to departing council staff under secretive 'settlement agreements' since 2011, it has emerged.

Worcestershire County Council is coming under pressure after revealing around 55 workers were paid an average of £11,818 each to walk away and prevent them launching an employment tribunal afterwards.

The controversial agreements, which campaigners have labelled "gagging orders", are often used to push people out the door by accepting a confidential offer they must keep secret.

We can also exclusively reveal how of that £650,000 sum, for the period between January 2011 and August 2014, £407,000 went to departing school staff while £243,000 was handed to other council workers.

The fresh findings have led to calls for an investigation into why the large sums are being paid out.

The council was last night refuting claims the tactic is being used to prevent whistleblowing, insisting the deals help avoid situations like unfair dismissal claims or lead to people leaking sensitive information.

But Freedom of Information campaigner Paul Cardin, who lobbies for the settlements to be made illegal, said: "It's all about secrecy and a way of pushing people out without questions being asked, and it's wrong.

"This is going on all over the country and if people realised the extent of it they'd be shocked."

Councillor Peter McDonald, leader of the opposition Labour group, said: "The role of local authorities is to serve local communities, not to gag former staff members restricting transparency.

"This is not just only a staggering amount, but many services could have been saved with this amount of money if the county were not obsessed with gagging employees."

Under employment law, staff can refuse to sign the deals and pursue claims via the courts if they feel they are being treated harshly.

But those that do sign them agree to a legally binding clause, often based around keeping the terms confidential and not seeking any redress from a court via an industrial tribunal.

Councillor John Campion, cabinet member for transformation and change said: "The council, like many large employers, does on rare occasion make responsible and appropriate use of settlement agreements.

“The council subjects any proposed settlement agreement to a robust internal approval process and the employee must have received independent legal advice from a relevant adviser.”

The council has again not provided any details around the circumstances under which it would consider a settlement agreement appropriate.

* What do you think? Should settlement agreements be abolished? Should the lack of transparency be a concern? Email te@worcesternews.co.uk or call 01905 742248.

* To see Mr Cardin's blog on settlement agreements around the UK, visit http://wirralinittogether.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/2519/