Employment Law advice

[Mcvj]

Hi there,

My friend has been going through a bit of a rough patch at work. She doesn't like her new boss or her new clients and wants to leave - I believe that her performance has been suffering as a result of her dissatisfaction.
She wants to leave, and as a result of her mistakes, her boss also wants her to leave. The alternative is for her to stay and then go through a performance management process which will probably see her dismissed.

She's on a two month notice period, but because she wanted to leave and because of the mistakes made, the boss has said for her to backdate her resignation letter to two months ago and then to sign a compromise agreement which will provide her with 1 month notice (paid ex-gratia) non-taxed.

Does this seem right?
- Can you give ex-gratia in this situation? My experience has only seen it with redundancies previously
-Does she have any right to kick off about not having her full two months notice?

Any help welcome!

[woofgang]

what does her contract say about notice? The point about an ex gratia payment is that you can make it at any time for any reason. Given that the option seems to be to be sacked via the disciplinary process which would likely come up on references and trash her future job prospects, if it was me I'd take the money and run.

[Mcvj]

She said that in her contract it said that the company reserves the right to make payment in lieu of notice so I dont know whether or not she should fight for that or take the money.
She's got to take the compromise agreement to a solicitor so that she signs it in front of them, then I believe he raises any questions re: the agreement.
I just dont know how nasty it will get. If the solicitor raises the question about PILON then I would've thought her employer would be in trouble for asking her to backdate resignation?

It's all so messy!

[ummmm]

I'm not advertising here..!!! But try putting your question on this site...

www.youremploymentmatters.co.uk

[woofgang]

wouldn't have thought so...its only like it saying 2 months notice in the T and C but the employer agreeing to accept a month or requesting that the employee only give a month.
If she has screwed up badly enough to be dismissed, then regardless of her actual "rights" I still think she should seriously consider accepting the deal. Jobs are hard enough to come by now without a disciplinary dismissal on your record.