Exit Strategy: Settlement Agreements, Releases & Avoiding Post‑Employment Claims

The end of an employment relationship is often where legal risk quietly peaks. While terminations, resignations, and redundancies may appear routine, poorly managed exits can expose organisations to costly post-employment claims ranging from wrongful dismissal and discrimination to victimisation allegations.

The best exit strategies are those which pose the least possible risks on the employer. It is felt that there are two prevailing solutions in which termination of employment, being the most onerous stage of the employment relationship, whereby, by balancing the interests of both the employee and the employer, risks are mitigated. One would undoubtedly be exposed to a variety of risks in the absence of recourse to such solutions. Strangely enough, the latter solutions would need to be considered at two opposite ends of the contract, before the engagement and later on, when there is a possibility of termination.