Severance agreements are usually drafted with the employer in mind. While the agreement may give some weeks or even months of severance pay to the employee, the exchange may or may not be fair. If the agreement hasn’t been negotiated, there is a good chance that it has been written by the company’s attorney to protect just the company’s interests. In other words, it isn’t mutual.
An employee may be under the impression that the company will not “contest” or fight the unemployment benefits. More than one employee in Massachusetts has been surprised when a manager’s off the cuff remark about not contesting the unemployment has turned out not to be the case.
Severance agreements can be drafted to help protect the employee’s unemployment benefits. For a discussion about whether you can have severance and collect at the same time, see this post.
For a free consultation, call Boston labor and employment lawyer, Maura Greene at 617-936-1580. In 2012 Maura Greene was named in the Boston Globe as one of Boston’s top rated Labor and Employment attorneys.
