Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Anna Denton-Jones of Refreshing Law and in today's session I want to talk about settlement agreements and negotiating them from the perspective of the employee in particular and just give some of my top tips, five in fact, in relation to that issue. So the first thing that I would say if you're an employee in the position of negotiating a settlement agreement, and there are other videos that you can watch on my YouTube channel telling you more about what a settlement agreement is, is to understand your bargaining power, your position, what you've got up your sleeve effectively. So that might just be the knowledge that the employer has approached you about leaving under a settlement agreement. So that's told you the outcome they want. They want you signed up to this. Agreement. It may be that there's a position of conflict and the employer is in the position of having to try and manage that conflict perhaps between a group of people, some kind of personality clash. It may be that you've got a potential grievance that if you weren't entering into this agreement, you'd be having discussions about a grievance, something that's happened to you, might be bullying and harassment, or it might be that the employer hasn't done something like look after you properly when you've become ill as a result of your job, maybe stress, risk assessments, things like that. Or maybe they've not made the adjustments that you need to accommodate a disability and remove a substantial disadvantage that you're at. So have a think about what ammunition you've got, if you like, up your sleeve, because that will help. Hopefully enable you to feel psychologically stronger in the negotiating process and have more of a potential idea about the value of any claims that you might have, because that will affect obviously what you're negotiating. And that's where typically your lawyer is going to help you look at those things. My biggest piece of advice is always going to be don't accept the first thing that's offered. Don't accept the first thing that's offered. comfort don't just roll over and accept the first thing that's stuck under your nose um you may have an employer who is really trying to bully you um in which case you need to be very firm in saying no to what is being suggested particularly if it's really undervaluing your position then you need to be going back and saying uh no i'm not going to be bullied into this the people who get the most out of settlement agreement negotiations will be those who not only negotiate in the broadest terms about their position but who also Also, get involved in the nitty gritty and ask for the sun and the moon and the stars in a way. So think about all the different angles. It's not just about your notice pay. You've also got other benefits in your package. It's not just about a tax free termination payment. You will be owed other bits and pieces like your holiday pay. You may want to negotiate outplacement consultancy so that you've got some support from a coach to enable you to get another job. And if that's going to be something you need help with, then now is your time to be arguing about who's going to be paying for that support. And the people who get the most out of these situations are those who enter into a proper brinkmanship and they don't blink immediately. And they do, even if they don't feel like it inside, hold the line, show the employer that you're not going to budge until a more sensible, reasonable position is offered. Ladies, I know I'm being hugely stereotypical now, but I have got an evidence base of 23 years of hard work. Having these negotiations with my clients to draw on, ladies tend to undervalue their position. Men will come on the phone and they will say, Anna, I want 18 months of salary, please. And they're quite bullish and they value themselves and they wouldn't get out of bed in the morning for less. Ladies tend to say, well, if I can get my notice pay, then I'll be happy. No, no, no, ladies, you need to. Value your position. Take a step back. Think if you were advising a friend or a family member, what would you be saying to them? And I can bet that you would be asking them to challenge the thinking around numbers. So don't undervalue your position. And the same will be true if you're very tired, if you're very worn out by perhaps an ordeal you've been through. There can be that temptation. There can be that temptation to just accept light at the end of the tunnel and rush towards it without stepping back and thinking about the value of your position. So don't be tempted to just accept an offer just to get yourself free. Do do try and balance out those tendencies that we all have. And if necessary, talk about it with somebody else who will help. If you see if you're being reasonable or not, rather than keeping it all inside your head. The biggest advice that I would have would be to say that until you're signed on the dotted line, everything is to play for. And it does take some time. Average, if I was going to say a time period, I would say two to three weeks. If you're going to have a job or not, you're not sleeping at night, there can be a temptation to rush that process. What you don't want to be doing is lying in bed six months later at 4am thinking about the package that you accepted and wishing you'd asked for more or asked for something else or hadn't been so hasty. So be quite strong and determined with yourself to make sure that you're not going to have any regrets. And my motto is to keep pushing until we hit the buffers. So that would be a signal from the employer saying very much. This is our final offer. And when we say final offer, we mean final offer. And we want to feel that we've done everything we can to get. To that position. Like I say, you don't want to be regretting it later on. Hope that's useful. If you've got any questions, a Denton at refreshing law. Ltd.co.uk is my email address. See you next time.