I want to leave my job with a pay-off / settlement agreement
If you are in the position where you wish to exit or leave your employer, but currently have no settlement offer, there are various options you have to try and force an exit via a settlement agreement.
The most important factor when assessing your position and claims is to understand if there is anything that may have happened to create the situation you are in. If your situation has come about because of your employer’s conduct or that of a colleague, then you may have a claim for constructive unfair dismissal that could be used to force a negotiated exit.
There are many different examples of what may amount to such conduct on your employer’s behalf. It could be an attempt to unilaterally change your terms and conditions, it could be there are instances of discrimination or there could be examples of bullying.
If you are in this situation then often raising a formal grievance can help in one of two ways. It can help you to air and resolve your issues and/or it can help create a platform from which you can try and negotiate an offer.
If there have been some issues and you are engaged in a dispute you may be able to make an offer on a without prejudice basis. If not, you may still be able to make proposals for settlement under section 111A of the employment rights act; often known as a protected conversation. Please click here
to read a more detailed summary of these forms of communication.
Obviously, the timing and content of any grievance/approach/offer needs to be carefully considered to give you the best possible opportunity to secure your desired outcome.
If there are serious issues that you cannot cope with, then simply resigning and pursuing a constructive unfair dismissal claim might be your best option. You need to take legal advice to ensure your position is protected and to maximise the strength of your claim. Timing is often key with constructive unfair dismissal as you typically only have two to four weeks in which to resign in response to your employer’s breach; failing which, you will be deemed to have acquiesced its breach.
If there has been discrimination then, unfortunately, it’s likely that such conduct will continue; especially if it’s a failure to make reasonable adjustments for any disability.
The fundamental point is that, at any time you can trigger a protected conversation with your employer. The fact that you want to leave may be sufficient for it to take your request seriously, but without any major concerns (for example a grievance or allegations of discrimination) then there may be little imperative for your employer to agree and it may instead simply wait for you to resign and leave, as that way it will have little extra to pay.
In our experience, where the employment relationship is good, there is rarely any cause or reason for an employee to want a pay-off. If people are simply unhappy, they generally look for another role and leave when they find something suitable.
If you are in a redundancy process, then there may be an option for voluntary redundancy, as often employers are willing to pay enhanced sums in return for you signing a settlement agreement. There is, however, no obligation on your employer to accept your request for voluntary redundancy and indeed there may be others who also wish to secure it.
Therefore, your ability to persuade your employer to make you an offer will be dictated by the circumstances. However, if there are issues you can raise that can be often help achieve your desired outcome. When you take employment law advice from us, we will want to understand the background information and your desired outcome to know if that’s likely to be achievable.
Of course, you may not know what outcome you want without the benefit of employment law advice, but once you engage us as your employment solicitor you will quickly understand the strength of your position, the options available to you, the costs and risks of each option and the course of action we recommend.