Termination of employment

Our related article was entitled Termination of Employment – Strategies for Senior Employees leading up to your Departure. In that article, we discussed a miscellany of considerations that should be weighed up before negotiating a Deed of Release. In this article, we review the key components that together make up such an agreement.

Many written employment contracts contain termination clauses which are defective. This is either because the documentation is so basic that a termination provision is not even mentioned or, if it is, the termination clause operates in a very narrow set of circumstances, none of which are relevant to the case at hand.

Many senior employees seeking redundancy advice labour under a misapprehension as to their redundancy rights. The value of those rights depends upon the “fine print” of the redundancy policy or employment contract provisions (assuming they exist).

Wrongful Termination occurs when an employee’s employment is terminated by the employer breaching the contract of employment. Depending upon your contractual position regarding the termination provision (including seniority), a wrongful termination claim may mean you have a reasonable notice claim at common law.

Much of the stress of termination of employment can be reduced by better understanding the process and adopting a strategic approach to the exit negotiations. Only a small number of senior employee terminations should ever warrant the issuing of legal proceedings.