Should You Fear Signing A Compromise Agreement?
A particular type of contract used more and more by employers is the compromise agreement. Its purpose is basically to resole any existing workplace disputes on claims between the company and its employees or former employees. Regularly, standardized compromise agreements are utilized for reaching closure in redundancy situations, cases of discrimination, or any other circumstances that lead to the termination of the employment contract and which may determine the ex-employee to pursue a law suit against the company.
Compromise agreements are recently more and more adopted by corporations and companies in situations of redundancy and workplace discrimination. Basically, through such a particular contract the (ex/) employee is asked to give up his statutory right or any other rights stipulated in the employment contract in exchange of some sort of compensation. Classically this return consists in several wages (on average between two and four) or an ex gratia payment given upfront. A compromise agreement can be signed either during the employment period or after termination of contract. Officially, an employee can file a complaint against his former employer in three months time after the date of termination. This is the reason why several companies prefer to close a compromise agreement beforehand just in case their former employees might change their mind once sent home.
Employers favour such type of legally binding forms because, even if they are not at fault, their expenses would be more consistent if they were required to defend themselves in the court of law. This is because on one hand the specific legislative framework does not oblige natural persons to cover a company’s costs in such cases of legal enterprises and, on the other hand reaching closure sooner than later will allow the employer to fill in the vacant position and deploy his activity in normal conditions.
Nevertheless, there are two type of rights that an (ex/) employee can neither be asked to, nor give up, namely the personal injury claims and his pension rights. In other words, even if a person accepts to sign a compromise agreement his rights to sue his employer or former employer against any personal injury that he was not aware of up to that moment or against the pension rate he is entitled to, are overall not affected.
All in all, both the employer and the employee can benefit from a compensation agreement as long as each party is reasonable and sensible to their own interest. However, in cases of serious prejudice like workplace incidents that may lead to personal injury claims, going further on the legal scale might be a better alternative. Nevertheless, in any type of circumstances, the assistance of a specialised and skilled independent solicitor can indeed increase your winning odds, as well as the margins of the benefits you are entitled to.
When involved in serious personal injury claims or other severe prejudice situations like medical negligence, resorting to dedicated and competent solicitors from goodmans is essential for making the best of your situation.