Employee Separation Agreement California Template

18 Sep Employee Separation Agreement California Template

California has seen a wave of legislative activity in recent years focused on protecting the rights of workers who enter into separation or settlement agreements with employers. Employers who have not updated their severance or severance agreement templates in recent years should consider whether there is a need to update their agreements. This is especially true with respect to SB 331, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed on October 7, 2021. SB 331 or the Silenced No More Act introduces additional restrictions on settlement agreements, non-insult agreements, and separation agreements entered into with employees in California after January 1, 2022. In return for the employee`s compliance with the separation agreement, the employer must make some sort of consideration. Consideration is an amount that can legally be passed on as payment for a natural or legal person to fulfil an obligation. For it to be considered legitimate, it must have meaning in the context of what is being requested. For example, paying the employee $100 for a list of claims that severely affect the employee`s ability to find a new job may not seem fair to a court. Under the Employment Age Discrimination Act, specifically 29 CFR 1625.22, an employer is required to provide a “cooling-out period” after signing a settlement, severance or separation agreement that allows the employee to withdraw from the separation agreement. The withdrawal periods are as follows: If the employee is under 40 years of age, there is no fixed time limit that must be given to the employee to sign the departure agreement. However, the time given to an employee becomes a factor that a court considers in deciding whether a waiver of Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or other non-ADEA claims is “conscious and voluntary.” In general, the more time an employer offers, the stronger the employer`s position.

In general, the decision-making unit consists of the positions that the employer takes into account when deciding who to let go. Depending on the circumstances, the unit of decision-making may be, for example, the entire enterprise, a department, a department, employees under a particular manager or employees who fall under a certain job classification. If you have an employee under the age of 40 who is threatening to sue and has changed their mind in the past, you may not want to offer them a right of withdrawal. Conversely, in the event of a collective dismissal for reasons of administrative facilitation, you may want to treat all employees equally, regardless of age, and therefore include the right of withdrawal in all termination agreements. The employer may have additional financial responsibilities to the employee due to the termination of the relationship. In “III. Severance pay”, we determine whether the employer makes payments to the employee after the end of the period of employment. If the employer is not required to make payments in addition to the employee`s regular salary, check the “No severance pay” box. If the employer is required to make an additional payment to the employee, check the box labeled “One-time payment” and enter the dollar amount to be paid to the employee as severance pay in the first empty line of this choice.

If this is the case, go to item “A” of this selection and indicate whether the employee will receive additional severance pay. If not, check the “No other severance pay” box. If yes, check the box “Other severance pay” and indicate on the blank line provided for this purpose what such severance pay is. If the employer is expected to provide the employee with more than one severance package, leave the first two options unchecked in this selection and check the “Multiple Payments” box. You must also set the dollar amount of each payment that the employer must make to the employee in the blank line after the dollar sign with the last calendar date on which these payments can be made under the words “Ending On”. Then define the frequency with which these payments are made by checking the box “Weekly”, “Biweekly”, “Monthly” or by filling in a specific calendar in the blank line provided for this purpose. Once this is done, pay attention to point “A” of this selection by checking either the box labeled “No other severance pay” or the checkbox labeled “Other severance pay” and then specifying the additional severance package that the employer must send to the employee. In the next article “IV. Restitution of property”, we will indicate when the employee must return property to the employer. If the employer does not have such a requirement for the employee, check the “No obligation” box.

If the employee is expected to return items to the employer, check the “Employee with an obligation to return” box to require a manifest of the items the employee must return, which are in the empty line after the words “.” Returned to employer. If the employee needs to return these items before a specific calendar date, specify that calendar date in the two empty fields in the “A) Return Date” item. The following article will also require our attention. In “V. Non-Competition”, we will address the employer`s possible concerns regarding the security of intellectual property, trade secrets, etc. If the employer does not expect the employee not to be in the “. Identical or similar industries that compete directly or indirectly with the employer`s business,” then check the first box. If the employer does not expect the employee to participate in contests in any way in the same or a similar industry, check the second box that says “There should be a non-compete obligation.” This requires that you create additional information about some of the items presented.

Start by reporting any industry that the employer intends to prevent the employee from participating in the empty line of “A.”). Industries. Then to point “B.) Term”, enter the number of days or months during which the employee must abstain from participating in restricted industries, and then check the “Days” or “Months” box to indicate how this number is reported. Finally, point “C.) Location” requires a definition of where the employee is not allowed to compete with the employer. You can set the location as a range by checking the “Radius” box, and then specifying the number of miles of the address you report in the specified blank lines, as a status by checking the second box and reporting the status, as an entire country by checking the third checkbox (“Nationwide”) or as an entire world, by checking the last box (“International”). Make sure you only meet these list requirements for these items if you have indicated that there will be a non-compete obligation. Often, in addition to their salary, the employee receives a benefit package provided by the employer. In the sixth article, entitled “VI. Employee Benefits”, we will report on the determined status of this benefit package […].