Compromise Agreement + Employer Costs

fezz

Hi All,

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this for me as i'm struggling to see how this is legal.

I was made redundant in May last year, I was given a Compromoise Agreement and the company said they would pay 250+vat for legal fee's for a solicitor to look over this as its a legal requirement. I found a solicitor and they looked over it, it then appeared that the agreeement was very wolly and they had missed out lots of points around my pay/bonus etc.. It ended up in me taking it further with ACAS and we eventually settled in Jan this year. In August 2010 I sent the invoice for the solicitors to the company and they said they would settle it, this was after I had decided and told them I was going to pursue the case with ACAS. Its not April and the solicors have contacted me as the company hasnt paid the invoice, I contacted them and they say as I didnt sign the original agreement their not paying. After a few emails back and forth they agreed to pay half as a guesture of goodwill but i fail to see why they shouldnt pay it all. After all if they have to pay for a solicitor to look at the Compromise agreement the solicitor is still going to charge whether i agree to it or not. At no point did they or anyone else mention this. If I was aware it hadnt been paid before I settled then I would have made sure it was but as it hadnt been mentioned/chased I wrongly assumed it had been settled.

Help.....

Thanks

Uncertain

Although it is customary for an employer to pay for or towards an employee's legal costs for a CA it is not a legal requirement.

It therefore comes down to what was agreed between you and the company. Ultimately, unfortunately, YOU owe the solicitor the money regardless of whether the employer pays you. Obviously you may have a claim against the company. Somehow I doubt they would go the distance defending a £250 claim. Custom and practice are in your favour here so the onus would be on the company to show that they do not.

Brightwater

My employer presented me with a compromise agreement. They had not followed correct procedure and I negotiated an extra 6 months employment, 4% pay rise, 8 months oncall-only after redundancy, staff discount card for life. They refused to put the oncall-only contract in the agreement. I agreed to de-link it in return for 12 days garden leave. There was an element of mutual trust and it wasn't a problem.

I rejected a clause in the agreement that I pay back redundancy money if I obtained another job.

It was a company requirement that I consult a solicitor to verify the agreement. The proposed maximum solicitors fee was too low. I said if you want me to sign the agreement, you pay the full bill, which they did.

Good luck,
Dave

Googlewhacker

Brightwater, just to let you know MSE doesn't allow you to have links in your signature, especially ones where you profit from.

Brightwater

Thanks Googlewhacker. I will wait for an official notification before removing. When I setup the link it was rejected for new members so I used non linking text. As I am offering MSE discount it seems mutually beneficial to me.

Cheers,
Dave

anamenottaken

Brightwater wrote: »

Thanks Googlewhacker. I will wait for an official notification before removing. When I setup the link it was rejected for new members so I used non linking text. As I am offering MSE discount it seems mutually beneficial to me.

Cheers,
Dave

Here's some official notification - it's in the Terms and Conditions for using the site:

You should not

9.2.2 post or transmit advertisements for or solicitations of business;