Settlement Agreement

RedcarYellowcar

HI, advice please on the following. Last week, I received an email to not return to work, HR meeting with view to settlement agreement, arranged 4 days later. The reason given, on questioning was the breakdown of the relationship with no further explanation. Employment of nearly ten years in current role. PILON 9 weeks as per contract with accrued holidays and both subject to tax/NI.  Legal fee £350, settlement of five weeks. Given 10 days to decide and seek solicitor. 

Is this a reasonable offer? Can the settlement amount be negotiated, and if so, where do you start? 
Any and all help ,experience or information is greatly appreciated.

elsien

Presumably you have an inkling as to what the breakdown of the relationship is about?
Do you want to try and fight it or are you happy to move on and just wanted to check that you are not selling yourself too cheaply? 

Andy_L

How does it compare to what you would  get if it was a redundancy situation? Either contractually or if statutory?

https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/redundancy-pay

Undervalued

RedcarYellowcar said:

HI, advice please on the following. Last week, I received an email to not return to work, HR meeting with view to settlement agreement, arranged 4 days later. The reason given, on questioning was the breakdown of the relationship with no further explanation. Employment of nearly ten years in current role. PILON 9 weeks as per contract with accrued holidays and both subject to tax/NI.  Legal fee £350, settlement of five weeks. Given 10 days to decide and seek solicitor. 

Is this a reasonable offer? Can the settlement amount be negotiated, and if so, where do you start? 
Any and all help ,experience or information is greatly appreciated.

You make no mention of any compensation for loss of employment in that "offer". What you list is your legal entitlement if you were being dismissed for anything short of gross misconduct.

Signing a settlement agreement simply signs away your rights to make (almost) any claim. The £350 legal fee contribution is an absolute bare minimum for a solicitor to read the document and explain that by signing you are giving up almost all rights. Far more would be needed for a solicitor to negotiate on you behalf.

It all depends on how you feel and the strength / weakness of your position. Almost anything is negotiable to some extent!

Brie

A company doesn't normally just tell someone they are no longer employed and simply pay PILON.  Normally there are meetings to try to resolve whatever the issue is.  Have they taken place?  If not I would talk to the solicitor and ask questions about unlawful dismissal.  

Dismissal: your rights: Overview - GOV.UK

RedcarYellowcar

elsien said:

Presumably you have an inkling as to what the breakdown of the relationship is about?
Do you want to try and fight it or are you happy to move on and just wanted to check that you are not selling yourself too cheaply? 

Thank you for replying, yes, I want to make sure its the best offer for me.

RedcarYellowcar

Andy_L said:

How does it compare to what you would  get if it was a redundancy situation? Either contractually or if statutory?

https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/redundancy-pay

Thanks for replying, I will look into it, no contractual information.

TadleyBaggie

£350 would get you about an hours work with a solicitor, not a lot if there is any disagreement on the settlement agreement.

I had a £500 allowance (10 years ago) and even though I just wanted the agreement signed off, the solicitors wanted another £400 on top. 

Marcon

RedcarYellowcar said:

HI, advice please on the following. Last week, I received an email to not return to work, HR meeting with view to settlement agreement, arranged 4 days later. The reason given, on questioning was the breakdown of the relationship with no further explanation. Employment of nearly ten years in current role. PILON 9 weeks as per contract with accrued holidays and both subject to tax/NI.  Legal fee £350, settlement of five weeks. Given 10 days to decide and seek solicitor. 

Is this a reasonable offer? Can the settlement amount be negotiated, and if so, where do you start? 
Any and all help ,experience or information is greatly appreciated.

Whether it's reasonable is heavily influenced by how quickly you'll be able to get another job - and how much of a kite your employer is flying/how badly they want to get rid of you. As to where you start: try a counter offer based on what you think you should get (ie above what's currently on offer).

NCC1701-A

If you are planning to get another job, as important as any monetary element is to get an agreed reference your employer is willing to give your future employers.

El_Torro

Taking what you say at face value I would want a lot more than 9 weeks pay, considering that you have been with the company over 9 years. I would ask for 4 weeks per year, with a view to accepting 3, or maybe a bit less depending on how tough the negotiation is. 

Of course if you play too tough they might just sack you for gross misconduct instead, depending on whether they actually have any evidence to suggest that you have committed gross misconduct. 

Some paid for support from a solicitor might be a good idea. Their fees won't come cheap though. If you had been there for 3 years I wouldn't bother with a solicitor, but you have a lot to potentially lose after over 9 years service.

If they wanted to make you redundant they would need to follow a certain process. Seeing as they don't want to follow this process you seem to have the upper hand here. Don't overplay it though, it could backfire.