compromise agreements – opinions please!

This is a tough one. I work for a large corporation HQ'd in the USA. Long story very short, they tried to f*** me and after a couple of months dancing they know Im not taking it so have suggested a compromise agreement to end it painlessly for us both.
Their offer is six months salary + benefits etc but i consider this a starting point for negotiations to begin from.
Question is – would you negotiate yourself or would you just hand it to your legal representative to handle for you (they are experienced with this kind of thing) – but cost £300 per hour!
Potentially there is a decent chunk of cash at stake here as Im a 100k+ PA employee. Im happy to negotiate but wonder if a lawyer can extract more? Whatever I gain needs to see me through to the next job which in this climate is tough…..

thoughts please ST'ers!

Wait for the rush of people wanting to give free advice to someone on £100K + a year. 🙂

My advice – put it away, it's cold outside tonight. You wouldn't want to get frost bite. 🙄

depends how many hours they may have to spend on it, however I would instruct your legal representative.

Often such agreements (well many of the ones I have dealt with) include a provision for the employer to satisfy a limited amount of the employee's legal costs.

50 k for f@ck all for 6 mths…tough call that one 🙄

I'd push for 9 months and get out of there – that strikes me as the obvious compromise arrangement.

get legal advice

50 k for f@ck all for 6 mths…tough call that one 🙄

I'd assume at £100k a year that money isn't an issue, therefore I'd take the least stressful option and settle for a quick £50k. And avoid the situation in the future if you can.

take your £50k, go home and play on your XBOX for 6 months
sweet

Last year I was earning more. Straight out of the blue I was told I was leaving and offered 35%. I 'argued' it up to 45% without course to spend any money. With a major element of it tax-free; this meant that I knew we could manage 18 months on it. I went quietly.

I would suggest in your situation you are already at 'stage 2', and need to consider the downsize…, if you play hardball, so may they – can you afford to finance legal costs for a 'period'. They can take their time, can you?

My gut-feeling, based upon my 7 redundancies, is to take the offer – is a few thou extra worth the possibility of nothing, at least for a while?

its striking a balance between something they will pay versus a point where they will put up with a "performance management" route instead or take a chance at a restructure.
the fact that they are offering to negotiate means there is a fear you could take them for unfair, contructive or some other tribunal type route possibly.
difficult without all he facts but a starter for 10 would be to see if your house insurance, bank account,or some other affiliation has a free legal help line where you could at least find out where you should be pricing yourself.
May be worth paying an independant employment law expert in the long run.
finally, assuming you were on 6 months notice, then 12 months (notice plus fair time to establish new employment) isnt uncommon
what they are offering is minimum imho

i'm amazed by the proportion of people who frequent this forum who must be in the top 5% of uk earners.

what does a computer games consultant do to get £100k?

Is there any downside to taking legal representation, in that they could take their offer off the table should it all start to "get nasty"?

Also what are the tax implications of such agreements? If/when the treasury take their cut then 6 months does not look that attractive? No £30k tax protection as in redundancy or do they fudge that as part of the agreement.

But, I think everyone will have their own position on this depending on their current circumstances, personalities and convictions.

Id suggest getting some friends so you dont have to ask strangers

That's rather rude.

Have you not thought that there's some benefit in using the forum as an anonymous source of information from a very wide range of people, rather than airing private issues with your group of friends that perhaps you might not want to in order to avoid it affecting your relationship with them?

EDIT: Quick edit there I see timc. Still sniping though.

who says that just because he is on 100k the money doesnt matter. if you previously had the lifestyle that goes with that salary bracket and had the financial commitments to match then a period of unemployment with only half your years pay might quickly lead to financial problems

why aren't they paying your legal expenses?
mrs gooner's company agreed to pay her lawyers "reasonable" costs
she definitely got a better deal using a lwayer
ask them to pay yours?

wow – thats a lot of quick feedback, thank you everyone.
This wasnt intended to be a willy-wave and Im not pleading hardship but I am being shoved out of a job I love unfairly.

I do have legal advice, now I have reached this decision with my employer, my legal representation has asked if i want them to handle the negotiations re settlement amount or take care of it myself.
I feel like they probably know better but wanted a second opinion.

My employers are offering to pay legal expenses but capped at a few hundred quid to literally cover the legal checkover of the contract they have provided me with, they wont pay to cover costs associated with a lengthy negotiation.

thanks again for the advice, I think Ill hand it to my lawyer to handle why I go and find a new job……sigh

Get someone else to negotaite money things, at that point its not you personally involved which always clouds judgement. And **** off everyone who is giving him a hard time for earning decent money – its not something to be ashamed of you know. Well actually clearly you don't 🙄

The maximum payout for unfair dismissal is just over £60K so there is not much leverage above this amount if you are white and male. They should normally pay for a lawyer this is part of the agreement, it would have to be a particularly badly worded agreement not to qualify for the £30K tax free amount.

30k is in deed tax free – its set out and offered by the government and has no bearing on my employer

unfair dismissal is extremly hard and lengthy to win im told, constructive dismissal seems relatively easy in comparison and the documentation I have already indictaes that would be a relatively "easy" win.
I think their biggest concern is they want to gag me post leaving….

It does have a bearing on your employer because if the compromise agreement is to meet your contractural entitlements then, the amount payable thereunder is taxable. However it will not be written this way.

gag you in what way ? Enforce a restraint of trade or stop you breaching confidentiality on what you did ? If latter then check your original contract as hopefully (for them) it has confidentiality provisions in it, otherwise yo uhave to be professional about things like that. If its restraint of trade – unenforcable if its 'what you do' – i've been there twice and won – twice.

constructive dismissal is wrongful dismissal. The point being the max you can get at a tribunal is £60K. I am not suggesting you go down this a route – just pointing out their worst downside.

Does the megacorp have a history? Knowing which lawyers have handled this (well) for others in your company would be really useful, otherwise a good negotiator would still be useful.

how can it be constructive dismissal have you resigned?

The legal definition is the termination of employment by an employee in response to a fundamental breach of contract by the employer.
quick googgling gives this
Sometimes this will be of an express term of the contract of employment, such as the right to be paid a certain amount on a certain date. More commonly, it will be that the employer's behaviour destroys or seriously undermines the relationship of trust and confidence that should exist between employer and employee by, say isolating them or failing to deal with a grievance.

you need to prove it was significant and not just minor /trivial

You earn that much money and you to ask stw for advice? If you were ever worth it you would already know the answer.

You earn that much money and you to ask stw for advice? If you were ever worth it you would already know the answer.

yeah. All those surgeons/footballers/dentists are just ace at business negotiation too. 🙄

Most people who are paid well, are paid so for excelling at a specialism, not for being an incredible generalist.

@geetee1972

So vikingboy might be a top class engineer, software architect or somesuch – WTF should he know about the best way to deal with every employment scenario?

geetee1972 – Member

You earn that much money and you to ask stw for advice? If you were ever worth it you would already know the answer.

Hahahaha x 1000. Go away geetee1972, you may be 37 but i doubt you have ever had to negotiate anything in your life. 🙄

geetee1972 – Member
You earn that much money and you to ask stw for advice? If you were ever worth it you would already know the answer.

That's not very helpfull. I'm in exactly the same situation and am as unsure about the best way to approach this. Dunt matter what you earn, there are always a) people around who earn more and b) people around who know more.

I think the OP was hoping for some sensible feedback from the b) contingent. I've certainly found it helpful so far.

OK OK OK so it wasn't a helpful comment; it was insensitive and tactless and I sincerely apologise.

By the way I work in sales so negotiation is something I do every day. I also work in the HR Consulting area so I know a little about the subject and I've worked with companies who are putting people through exactly this process.

To be more helpful (seriously, I was tongue in cheek with my comment) six months plus benefits is pretty good; to clarify its as good an offer as I've seen made in similar circumstances. Bear in mind (and I could be wrong about this so check) that the exposure to the company for a straightforward wrongful dismissal claim is c.£50k, which coincidentally is what they are offering you. Their rationale will be that they pay £50k and then they don't have to tie up a huge amount of management time dealing with a tribunal that if found against them would also mean they have to pay costs.

If you don't feel confident in negotiating, then it would be best to steer away from doing it. I couldn't say if a lawyer would do it on your behalf; based on experience I think that they would more likely simply advise you and then expect you to do the negotiating rather than doing it for you, but I could be wrong. A lawyer will be more interested in engaging a negotiation if there is more to the claim than simply wrongful dismissal because the payout is so small.

If for example, there were a discrimination element to your claim, e.g. on the grounds of age, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief etc, then the amount the company can be sued for is unlimited. A law firm is then going to get far more involved.

The company does have to pay your fees for the lawyer though in order for them to work on your behalf on the compromise agreement and advise you on the best course of action. Again, that has been my experience when I've had to deal with handing someone a compromise agreement, but you should check with either Citizen's Advice or a lawyer.

You can also call and talk to a partner of any decent law firm with a HR practice and put the situation to them to see if there is anything else you can pursue. It's nothing more than a simple 10 minute conversation and again, my experience has been that lawyers will do this (and not charge for it).

If you do decide to negotiate, then your best friend is information. The more informed you are as to your rights, their exposure, their concern of having to deal with a wrongful dissmisal claim or even a discrimination claim, will all arm your negotiation. Information is power in negotiating, as is a cool head, knowing exactly what your top, middle and bottom line levels are and then structuring your approach around those. Work out what you want, what you're prepared to compromise on and then make the other side feel as though the things that are most important to you are least and vice versa.

Finally, check to see if compromise agreements are tax free (up to a point, I think it's like redundancy which is c.£30k). If they are then you're coming away with around 9-10 months net salary, not 6 and you can plan to go a lot longer before you have to find work. Dealing with what you do next is a whole other issue (again one I can advise on as one of the places I've worked extensively is outplacement consulting – let me know if you need any direction with that), but like negotiating, having a plan is the most important thing. Remember that a compromise agreement binds both parties to not talking about what and why but you'll need a convincing story as to why you left.

I'm conscious that this advice might be reasonably good and thus make my initial sarcastic response seem even more insensitive. So again, apologies and good luck.

Is this corporation HQ'd in the US in the…. IT business, by any chance? With an office in Victoria? 6 months' pay is a bonus, but obviously depends on your length of service. Unless you have an epic mortgage/ coke habit/ string of mistresses, I'd take it, naff off to Thailand for 3 months and enjoy!

I think the point here is not how much you can screw them out of, rather how much is a reasonable amount of money that will make you happy. Personally I'd enjoy the 6 months' pay, particularly since a large chunk of it should be tax free.