Breach of compromise agreement

jumpfer

I left an employer two years ago. They asked for a compromise agreement so I would not divulge certain information and the payoff was inflated accordingly. Within the compromise was an agreed positive reference.

In the last week I have found out the Chief Exec has spoken disparagingly of me to a prospective employer. Annoyingly, all I have is the word of someone from the employment agency organising the interview of what occurred.

I am just waiting for the solicitor who represented me in the compromise to get back to me. But I fear because I have no physical evidence, there is little comeback.

P.S. The compromise agreement was to protect the Chief Exec. :mad:

Comms69

jumpfer wrote: »

I left an employer two years ago. They asked for a compromise agreement so I would not divulge certain information and the payoff was inflated accordingly. Within the compromise was an agreed positive reference.

In the last week I have found out the Chief Exec has spoken disparagingly of me to a prospective employer. Annoyingly, all I have is the word of someone from the employment agency organising the interview of what occurred.

I am just waiting for the solicitor who represented me in the compromise to get back to me. But I fear because I have no physical evidence, there is little comeback.

P.S. The compromise agreement was to protect the Chief Exec. :mad:

Well where is your agreed reference? You must have a copy.


Ultimately what you have is hearsay and therefore very unlikely to be actionable.

lulu650

Your solicitor would have made sure to include a clause in the agreement referring to the attached reference with the proviso that any verbal conversation would be no less favourable than the reference.

Given the confidentiality of the agreement, it is only your solicitor you can discuss this in detail with.

steampowered

The first thing is to read your compromise agreement to see what it says.

Particularly the clause dealing with the agreed reference. Does it have a provision which says that there are to be no verbal references, or that any verbal reference must be on the same terms as the agreed form reference?

If so, you would have enough to formally write to the chief executive. The letter could come from a solicitor. It would remind him of the company's legal obligations under the compromise agreement; invite them to confirm that they will pay your damages and reasonable costs associated with the negative reference; and invite him to confirm that he will comply with the compromise agreement going forward.

You certainly have enough to send a letter like that, which would probably be enough to put the chills up them to make them comply in future.

You do not need physical evidence to take legal action. If your agreement covers this, you also have enough to initiate legal action for breach of contract. This could be done through the 'small claims track' if you want costs protection. If the case was defended you would ultimately have to see what the company puts in its defence and call the chief executive as a witness. If the chief executive straight out denied he ever said anything it will be very difficult to prove otherwise, but it would not be uncommon for people to admit to having conversations when pushed.

It really depends how far you want to take this.

jumpfer

Thanks for the prompt responses.