Employment Law Cases

Legal documents that are used in cases of redundancy or dismissal by offering payment agreed under certain conditions are generally termed as compromise agreements. Employers generally use compromise agreements to speed up the process of ensuring that a dismissal will not affect the employer in the future. Once an employee has agreed to the conditions specified in the agreement and signed, he/she will not be able to make claims against the employer in future. Employers can use compromise agreements to effective means while they are dealing with redundancy or termination of their employees. In most cases, the agreement will also involve a notice element in your contract of employment and may provide for a “payment in lieu”. Payment in lieu of notice is the amount owed by the company to an employee, if he/she is dismissed with immediate effect. This amount is worked out by how much they would have been paid if they had worked their contracted notice period.

The agreement’s overall purpose is to settle a dispute over a dismissal or sometimes to prevent any possibility of further claims following redundancy. It prompts an employee to agree to waive statutory claims such as discrimination or unfair dismissal. Compromise agreements will be valid only if it is in a written format and both the parties signed have signed to agree to the terms. An employee cannot negotiate potential future claims, though claims that have already arisen, unknown to the employee, can be waived. The documentation is a final settlement of any claims that the employee has against the employer or vice-versa.

Since the compromise agreement is a legal contract, a solicitor should be involved to ensure both the parties have officially signed the document. A solicitor can also provide advice regarding the terms of the contract and determine if the amount of compensation being offered is adequate.

A standard compromise agreement should contain:

• Details regarding any compensation that might be offered

• Confidentiality given to you by the employer

• Assurance that there will not be legal actions in the future

• An acceptance of each and every term by the employee

The contract is conducted so that once signed, the employees will not be able to bring a claim against the employer for anything at all. Both sides usually agree to a clause in the agreement guaranteeing confidentiality. If the employee is not happy with the terms in the contract that have been offered, it is not compulsory that they sign it. Employees may continue to negotiate through the solicitor until an agreement is reached. If negotiation fails to bring about an agreement, the employee may pursue the case as he likes. This means that the employer might deny or refuse to pay the agreed compensation package and the employee will need to take the case to a tribunal for settlement.

Compromise agreements are beneficial to both employer and employee. It enables an employer to define conditions under the departure of an employee and this in protects the organization from future claims. The employee’s reimbursement from this compromise agreement is the financial amount received in return.

Discrimination in the workplace became illegal when President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Equal Employment Opportunity Order in September 1965. This order prohibited federal contractors from discriminated against job applicants or employees based on sex, race, color, religion or nation of origin. In 1967, the Age Discrimination in Employment act added an applicant’s relatively advanced age to the list of factors that could not be help against them.

Since these important acts have passed, the United States has come a long way in our efforts to provide equal opportunities to all citizens. But how successful have we been? Statistics suggest that the struggle against job discrimination may be far from over.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, the entity in charge of hearing and deciding job discrimination claims, features the following numbers on their website:

In 2007, the EEOC received 2,880 complaints about religious discrimination in the workplace, an increase from 1997, a year that saw the EEOC received 1,709 complaints. Off all the complaints received last year, 194 were determined to have reasonable cause (which means the plaintiff was able to prove the discrimination they had experienced.)

Also in 2007, the committee received 30,510 reports of racial discrimination in the workplace. 998 plaintiffs were found to have reasonable cause to make their complaints. Again, the number of complaints had increased since 1997, when 29,199 complaints of racial discrimination were filed.

Unlike racial and religious discrimination, sex-based discrimination has not increased much in the last ten years. In 1997, 24,728 complaints were filed with the EEOC; in 2007, there were 24,826 complaints. Of the complaints made in 2007, 1,299 were found to have reasonable cause.

The percentage of plaintiffs who won their cases may seem small in these examples. However, discrimination can be very difficult to prove. Without some form of written or recorded documentation, there are very few ways to really demonstrate what a person has experienced. Additionally, many people who have experienced discrimination never file a formal charge. They may be worried about retaliation from their employers or convinced that they would not be able to prove their case anyway. A study conducted by CareerBuilder.com and Kelley Services reveals that 20 percent of American workers, or one in five, feels that they have been discriminated against at work. The most common complaints were being passed over for promotion, not receiving full credit for their work, and not having their concerns addressed seriously. For more information about this study, see the article on CareerBuilder’s web page.

For more information about fighting illegal discrimination, contact Los Angeles employment lawyer Perry Smith.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Smith v. City of Jackson, Mississippi, has upheld the notion that persons who sue for age discrimination do not need to prove that an employer intentionally discriminated based on age. Instead, a person only needs to show that a workplace policy has a disparate impact on older workers. Due to the gray areas within this ruling, additional litigation has surfaced. Plaintiffs sue for emotional distress caused by age discrimination, and the typical age-bias cases average $150,000, while state law wrongful discharge lawsuits can run upwards of $1 million. Age discrimination lawsuits carry great financial penalties because the damages are based on the earnings of the plaintiffs and the time that they are out of work.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older from employment discrimination based on age. The ADEA’s protections apply to both employees and job applicants. Under the ADEA, it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of his/her age with respect to any term, condition, or privilege of employment — including, but not limited to, hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, benefits, job assignments, and training.

It is also unlawful to retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on age or for filing an age discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding, or litigation under the ADEA.

The ADEA applies to employers with 20 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government.

Certain state laws tend to include employers with fewer than 20 employees, so small businesses might have to comply with state law even if they are not covered by the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).

Businesses need to be proactive and extra vigilant in educating themselves to prevent age bias claims. There is no time like the present to evaluate current employment policies. Simple solutions can include keeping abreast of all record keeping requirements and reviewing business policies to ensure they are age neutral. Other solutions include, retaining payroll and benefit plan records for all terminated employees and having an organized and safeguarded system to retrieve important documentation.