Do I Need to Respond to a Severance Offer by My Employer’s Deadline?
An employer who puts a short deadline on a severance offer — usually one week from the date of termination — is hoping this will get the employee to quickly accept the offer and sign a release, which is an agreement that the employee won’t sue for wrongful dismissal or anything that happened during their employment (including, for example, discrimination).
If you’ve received a severance offer, you should review it with a lawyer. Some of these offers are fair but many are low and can be improved by negotiation. And once you’ve signed a release, it can’t be undone unless there are exceptional circumstances that make it unfair to hold you to what you signed. Such circumstances are extremely rare — buyer’s remorse is not enough to undo the deal — and so releases almost always hold up in court.
But what if you can’t get an appointment with a lawyer before the employer’s deadline on the offer? You should just ask for more time.
The employer would be wise to agree, because an offer signed under pressure and without the opportunity to get proper legal advice is more likely to be challenged in court. Even if the agreement ultimately holds up in court, this sort of challenge has a financial cost to the employer that they surely would rather avoid.
In my experience, if an employer is willing to offer something at the time of termination, they’re usually willing to make that same offer a couple of weeks (or even months) later. The employer’s deadline on the initial offer is often nothing more than a pressure tactic.
This article was originally published by The Hamilton Spectator.
