forced into compromise agreement whilst suffering from cancer

didier

My husband had worked for his employer for 30 years when he was bullied for underperforming by a new management team. He was devastated by his treatment and accepted their offer of a compromise agreement. It turns out that he was suffering from cancer at the time but it hadn't been diagnosed. The type of cancer he has is difficult to spot, but he ignored the most obvious sympton of rapid weightloss putting it down to the stress of his work situation. Although he did receive a financial settlement he has lost out on the critical illness insurance through his employment, the possibility of an ill health pension and should the worst happen his death in service benefits. Does he have any further comeback on his employers having signed the compromise agreement?

Uncertain

It is very unlikely. That is after all the purpose of a CA.

For the agreement to be valid he must have been professionally advised (solicitor or occasionally a specially trained trade union rep). Was he?

Assuming he was then normally the only comeback would be against the advisor (if he can prove they gave poor advice).

A firm cannot exclude certain types of personal injury claim by means of a CA. However he would need to show that the injury or illness was the firm's fault AND that he wasn't aware of it at the time of signing.

I'm afraid your chances are not high.

Jarndyce

Nobody can be forced into a compromise agreement - its a contradiction in terms.

He signed the agreement willingly (at least he will have signed to say he did) and therefore gave up all rights to claim he was bullied and/or unfairly treated in exchange for a sum of money.

CAs ususally exclude all claims against the employer except PI claims arising from a condition not known about at the time. If his does not then he was very badly advised. But in any case he would need to make the direct causal link between stress caused by the employer's negligence and the cancer. Impossible I would have thought. Sorry.

didier

Jarndyce wrote: »

Nobody can be forced into a compromise agreement - its a contradiction in terms.

When I said forced into the agreement I meant that his work situation had become so intolerable that he felt that he had no alternative, it was probably the wrong word to use.

Thanks to both for the advice, I think it is as I expected but was hopeful that it might not be.

Uncertain

Sadly what so often happens in these situations is that the CA includes a couple of hundred pounds or so towards the employee's legal costs. With solicitors charging around this per hour it only pays for the absolute legal minimum i.e explaining to the employee what they are signing away and producing the certificate. It doesn't pay for a detailed assessment of the rights and wrongs of the dispute and its possible settlement value.

Understandably an employer does not want to pay hundreds or thousands for the solicitor to argue with them and get the employee a better settlement!

With hindsight, in certain circumstances, some money spent in this direction by the employee can be a sound investment. But it is a gamble and is a decision that has to be made at a difficult time.

Unless there are some exceptional circumstances then I think all you can do is move on.

Sorry.

SarEl

Uncertain wrote: »

Sadly what so often happens in these situations is that the CA includes a couple of hundred pounds or so towards the employee's legal costs. With solicitors charging around this per hour it only pays for the absolute legal minimum i.e explaining to the employee what they are signing away and producing the certificate. It doesn't pay for a detailed assessment of the rights and wrongs of the dispute and its possible settlement value.

Whilst I agree entirely with this, and wouldn't wish to criticise my esteemed colleagues - not that it has ever stopped me before - this sort of practice is a choice and not a requirement. We offer very few - almost no - walk in services (that means taking self-referrals as opposed to solicitors or union referals) but we realised a long time ago that compromise agreements were an area of law that was being exploited. We have a walk-in service for these, with a legal executive who is a whizz at spotting employers BS. For £250 we can review the agreement and make an initial assesment of a potential case - certainly enough to advise a client that they might want to reconsider the offer or get legal advice (which is never offered by us, so we make nothing from any referral we might make to a lawyer). If they want further advice we will provide the names of several good employment solicitors - we never tell them or advise them where to go - and they get a leaflet that explains very simply what they should expect from and ask a solicitor. If they choose not to take the advice we witness the signature and provide the accreditation that they have been advised.

Before anyone asks, no I can't - it's advertising and against the rules here. But I know an increasing number of places do similar services. A CA doesn't need a lawyer - it needs legal advice and our authority that that advice has been provided. So people need to be asking what they get for their money and shop around - many people do not.

And if anyone is interested, approx. just under 20% of our clients are told to go get legal advice before signing, and less than 4% of them do! Many people see the £'s sign and sign on the dotted line. I can't always blame them, but it is equally often disappointing that people are so easily bought.

Sorry for the diversion - I agree with the previous posters that I regret to say that the fact that the cancer was undiagnosed at the time of signing, and cannot be linked to the employment, leaves the employer in the clear. I hope that the treatment is successful and the am sorry that there isn't more we can do.

Emmzi

I've had a CA and I've paid for additional legal advice and it was worth every penny. It was indeed a choice and I took guidance knowing there may be needless expense. But what price peace of mind?

does not help OP; but just to agree with SarEl above.

basuti

didier wrote: »

My husband had worked for his employer for 30 years when he was bullied for underperforming by a new management team. He was devastated by his treatment and accepted their offer of a compromise agreement. It turns out that he was suffering from cancer at the time but it hadn't been diagnosed. The type of cancer he has is difficult to spot, but he ignored the most obvious sympton of rapid weightloss putting it down to the stress of his work situation. Although he did receive a financial settlement he has lost out on the critical illness insurance through his employment, the possibility of an ill health pension and should the worst happen his death in service benefits. Does he have any further comeback on his employers having signed the compromise agreement?

I too was dismissed by a new MD; with re-structuring being the reason. I was informed that to receive any payment I would have to sign a Compromise Agreement. I held my nerve and refused to sign anything and eventually received a small amount of damages.(Mediation) My original employment tribunal was only for Unfair Dismissal Procedure; which they accepted, but only covered a small amount of loss of earnings. It was later considered that I had been poorly advised and I had been dismissed because of my age(55 against the other 2 at risk 39 & 36) with a lower points score in the selection Matrix;with a potential to receive damages covering the 10 years until retirement, however I was outside the 3 months time limit and claims cannot be retrospective.
Be assured if you sign a Compromise Agreement that is the end for any further settlement unless you can prove that any illness or disease was contracted whilst in their employ. Performance issues are completely different with their own disciplinary procedures and can not be covered by a CA; the word Mutual is the key to a CA; so unless, as with voluntary redundancy to prevent potential litigation from the employee any CA has to be agreeable to BOTH SIDES.