Voluntary Severance Agreement

Whether your employer calls it a voluntary redundancy or separation package, pension purchase or early retirement offer, your options are the same. You can accept the offer and retire soon with some additional benefits, or refuse the offer and keep working. After an initial review of the agreement, you can choose to hire an employment lawyer, especially if you have evidence of discrimination, if the language of the package is too complicated or broad, or if the agreement is several pages long. Ask the lawyer what the state`s laws governing severance agreements are and whether there are any provisions regarding timing and payment amounts. Also talk to on-site employment and recruitment agencies to determine how long it may take you to get a new job at the same level and salary. A voluntary severance package could be a gale or bankruptcy. What is right for you will be different from what is right for others. To decide what it is for you, you have to compare the offer with what an involuntary termination would look like. Sometimes involuntary termination may be financially preferable for you, since you have your time of service as well as legal rights, severance pay and common law. Voluntary severance pay is calculated using the same age brackets as statutory allowances to determine the number of weekly salaries.

A locally agreed 1.75 multiplier is then applied. Unlike SRP, voluntary severance pay is based on the actual amount of the basic salary of one week (for example. B it is not capped). We have summarized some of the main factors that should be taken into account when balancing a package of voluntary severance pay. If there are rumors of layoffs in your office, the possibility of stopping before the axe falls may push you, but a stay may put you in a position to claim unemployment insurance coverage and get a severance package. Prepare in advance, whether you expect a layoff or not. Check your critical resources and expenses to identify your financial needs. Make a list of the main benefits you want to negotiate. Look at the company`s severance policy and find out what former colleagues received. The lesson? At a time of uncertainty, when many employers are looking at voluntary severance pay as a way to reduce costs, employers should think critically before offering such a package to workers, especially when they offer only voluntary severance pay to certain age groups. Even if it appears that the offer of voluntary severance pay is a safer choice, unlike an FIR, a court may nevertheless find that a package of severance pay is a sufficient disadvantage to discriminate.