Compensation for Loss of Contractual Benefits / Signing NDA

[lenny007]

Afternoon All,

Ok, without going into too much information, my wife is currently going through the grievance procedures at work and has also handed in her resignation.

She has today had her meeting with HR and not to put too fine a point on it, they don' have a leg to stand on and they've just about admitted it.

Work related stress, lack of management support, sexual discrimination, breach of contract for bonus / pension / private medical insurance - you name it.

Question is, at the meeting the HR bod asked what my wife wanted out of this situation. Now we've already asked about her options, bearing in mind she has already resigned and she was asked if she wanted a) an apology from the person(s) responsible and / or b) compensation.

Some of this is straight forward but i was wondering what sort of compensation one would ask for with respect to breach of contractual rights benefits? Is it within reason to ask for a compensation figure to allow you to pay for PMI for a period of time following leaving the company?

Further to this and following on from some online reading, it would appear that it is not out of the ordinary to ask for a compensatory amount in order to sign the inevitable NDA (which has already been mentioned as a precursor to receiving compensation). What sort of figure should we be looking at for this?

I appreciate that this is a "piece of string" sort of question but any help or advice would be gratefully received.

Cheers in advance.

[98elise]

NDA is quite normal.

How much would she get if she was being made redundant? That would be my expectation at least.

[Jasandjules]

The value of any settlement is reflected in a few factors, including but not limited to:

1. How much the company is willing to pay to avoid a claim
2. The value of any award a Tribunal could issue (though I note here breach of contract is a different kettle of fish subject to the value i.e. if north of 25k)
3. How much you want to risk going to court

You also of course want things that a court can not award such as an agreed enhanced reference.... And for the employer to pay the cost of the signing of the SA.

[lenny007]

Jasandjules said:

The value of any settlement is reflected in a few factors, including but not limited to:

1. How much the company is willing to pay to avoid a claim
2. The value of any award a Tribunal could issue (though I note here breach of contract is a different kettle of fish subject to the value i.e. if north of 25k)
3. How much you want to risk going to court

You also of course want things that a court can not award such as an agreed enhanced reference.... And for the employer to pay the cost of the signing of the SA.

Thanks for your replies and apologies for not responding sooner. She already has a reference from the company so that is not really required as part of the negotiation.

From what i understand, this will be the 4th such case that's the company have faced in the last 12 - 15 months and none of them went to court so i'm presuming there is a desire to settle out of court and quickly.

In note in your point 2 you mentioned breach of contract being different - could you expand on that a bit? As i understand it, there is a limit to the amount a tribunal can award up to about £83K but that is dependant on you earning more than that. If you earn less then the maximum you can get is one years salary. I could be misinterpreting that but am i in the ball park?

Also, thanks for mentioning the SA and costs. I hadn't appreciated that we would need to do that but will make sure the cost of it is either partially or fully covered in our agreement negotiations.

[Jasandjules]

With regards to the Reference, you can ask for an enhanced reference i.e. more than just the "Mrs X was employed from Date to Date " which is the standard for many companies. Of course if her employer already says nice things about their staff in references then no need to worry, but I tend to like to have a note that the parting of ways was in no way due to any fault on the part of the employee...

The breach of contract - there is a limit in Tribunal for a breach of contract (25k) therefore if the sums involved exceed that figure for breach of contract (probably not but you never know) then this is a matter that would need to go to the Civil Court i.e. High Court... BUT what I am thinking here is (again unlikely but belts and braces and all that) if your wife had a major issue resulting from their conduct which meant she could no longer work then her PHI or medical insurance may be needed and the sums due under these contractual benefits may be high, we also have no idea of the level of bonus we are discussing..

And yes the Tribunal itself is limited to around 84k unless there is a discrimination or whistleblowing element at which point the award is uncapped.

[lenny007]

Jasandjules said:

With regards to the Reference, you can ask for an enhanced reference i.e. more than just the "Mrs X was employed from Date to Date " which is the standard for many companies. Of course if her employer already says nice things about their staff in references then no need to worry, but I tend to like to have a note that the parting of ways was in no way due to any fault on the part of the employee...

The breach of contract - there is a limit in Tribunal for a breach of contract (25k) therefore if the sums involved exceed that figure for breach of contract (probably not but you never know) then this is a matter that would need to go to the Civil Court i.e. High Court... BUT what I am thinking here is (again unlikely but belts and braces and all that) if your wife had a major issue resulting from their conduct which meant she could no longer work then her PHI or medical insurance may be needed and the sums due under these contractual benefits may be high, we also have no idea of the level of bonus we are discussing..

And yes the Tribunal itself is limited to around 84k unless there is a discrimination or whistleblowing element at which point the award is uncapped.

Again - thanks for taking the time to reply. I must confess i hadn't considered the idea of having it confirmed that she wasn't responsible for the "parting of ways" so we need to consider that.

I might be a bit paranoid and i don't want to give away too much online but breach of contract generally involves not setting or agreeing KPI's which were a condition of her potentially earning bonus. Ergo, she was denied an opportunity to earn the bonus by their omission. Potentially about £15k so well under the BOC limit so i can't envisage this going any further (at worst) than ACAS and the early conciliatory stage.

The other breaches are along the lines of not doing what they said they'd do relating to pensions and PMI - but she has had a material benefit on the pension so it's mainly a breach of pension rules as well as contract.

PMI - it was said to be provided from day 1 of employment, after 8 months, she ended up asking for and being authorised to add herself onto the scheme. Ok, it's not a lot, but she wasn't covered for 8 months and its in contradiction to her contract.

Going forward, i understand she is within her rights to ask for compensation based on loss of statutory rights (2 years before she can claim unfair dismissal) but i also understand there could be a claim for loss of contractual rights i.e. her PMI but i don't know what would be "reasonable" to request at this point. i.e asking for what would be comparably 2 years contributions for personally paid for scheme for example.

I believe we are at the start of the settlement agreement process so it will be interesting to see how amenable they are to resolving this amicably - or not.

[Jasandjules]

One thing to also bear in mind is time limits especially if consideration is being given to an ET claim in the absence of an agreed settlement.