Did you know that under Texas law, if you’ve been terminated or laid off, you may be asked to sign a severance agreement? Before you sign it, you need to understand what it means for you legally. Normally, when you sign a severance agreement, you’re waiving your rights to any and all legal claims against your employer for being terminated.
When you sign a severance agreement, you’ll normally be compensated. Not all severance agreements allow you to come back to the job at a later date, so understand if you’re being laid off temporarily or permanently before you sign the paperwork. It’s in your best interest to have someone familiar with severance laws and regulations look over your severance package and paperwork before you sign to prevent you from being taken advantage of.
In some cases, a severance agreement still allows you to negotiate with your employer for a better deal. If you don’t feel the severance offers you enough money, for instance, then you may wish to renegotiate the payment. You may want to draft your own severance agreement to propose to your employer. It may take some negotiation in order to reach an agreement on what you feel is a fair severance package.
If you want to learn more about severance packages and what you should expect with yours, visit our webpage on employment law. We can provide advice and guidance before you sign the paperwork so that you can rest assured that you are getting the severance that is just. This paperwork can only be signed once, so make sure you’re doing the right thing when you fill it out.