To think she’s lying? Or do companies really do this?

Yep, my school (private) paid £30K to a colleague (teacher) who didn't fit in with the new head, so I can quite believe a law firm paying £70K in similar circumstances.

Maybe she was 64?

I know someone who did basically achieve this (mid-fifties, and should have been sacked for incompetence). At the first sign of performance improvement he went off sick and said work left him incapacitated due to stress! He got early retirement and his pension topped up to the level it would be if he had been leaving at 65!

Interestingly, I was last boss but one and approached HR about competence and was told to manage around him. His last boss insisted he be pursued for competence and maybe cost the company more. But regardless it all happened 20 years ago!

I think a lot of these settlements were negotiated by great lawyers: I know 3 lawyers who negotiated such settlements for themselves as that’s their job. Otherwise the companies take the piss and try away with offering the least amount possible.

Of course this happens, but only in specific circumstances where you really want rid of someone, but can't really get to that point via a performance process or want them gone quickly & quietly.

Its not a good thing. In most industries reputations do matter when getting jobs & people manage to hear about these things. You run the risk of not getting a decent job again and its not a pleasant process to go through.

That said, for some people it can be ok. Ive known a couple of people get paid off then sail into another job.

£70k sounds like a lot when you earn less but to large companies its not that much

Yep. I live with a lawyer and I'm always baffled. The retention bonuses are even more crazy

Sheesh. She will have been through months of stress with the threat of being sacked over her. And she now has to find a job.

You wouldn’t be saying that if it was court ordered compensation. You would say “How awful for her that this is fair compensation.” Honestly, you have your thinking arse about face here.

My friend negotiated settlement with her law firm - £200k (equivalent to one years’ salary), she stays on the website for 6 months and was put on gardening leave for that duration, once she secured a new job she could leave with immediate effect, and they had to give her a positive reference,

It was well deserved though as they treated her horrifically post mat leave (and she only took 5 months mat leave).

In all likelihood she was causing problems internally and they were happy to see her go.

I work in a big financial services company. I've seen many people go on unexpected leave and then an announcement comes out saying they've "decided to pursue other opportunities".

It's either because they were trouble makers or they disagreed with the bigwigs on how things were heading.

You also won't get 70k if you "try" this, as you're on much less as an annual salary. You'd more likely get your take home pay.

Just happened to my sister, put on gardening leave whilst she decided if she wanted to take their offer, then paid a lump sum(which she hasn't told me how much she got so yes she's probably signed some agreement) and her unused holiday. She hasn't worked for 2 months so far, and won't need to until December.

It's not fun trying to fill your days when you're used to working 5 days a week. There's only so much housework and exercise you can do.

No, exactly, our standard templates had 1xyear's salary for settlement, 3xmonths' salary for gardening leave.

We might occasionally offer a bit more if it could really affect the company or one of the execs. I'm in-house, mostly pretty prestigious FTSE100 type companies so not short on capital. If I'd conceded that demand (or even suggested it to the CEO!) it would display a real lack of understanding and ability that could in itself see you given notice...

Err you need to have good grounds for a tribunal claim against your employer, eg for discrimination. This is essentially settlement of a claim - you get the money to go and not make a fuss. If you just don’t like your job, your employer won’t pay you tens of thousands (and for a lower salary, you’d be looking at less than your friend in any event) to leave. It’s literally only if they think you will sue them.
Some contracts for high earners might include an early termination payment too.

Only the first £30k is tax free. That's why it's common to get £30k as the settlement sum in a compromise agreement. Any amount above that would be taxed, but she could have got more than that - she'd probably have been entitled to pay in lieu of notice, for example.

My friend got £75k and she has been with the company 2 years. There was some discrimination but they settled out of court.

I got £60k due to redundancy.

It's not unusual

Not if you’re on garden leave. The point of that is to stop you working elsewhere and taking clients etc.

I don't think that's true, If you are off work from stress or because you are a dog walker who broke his leg being pulled over by a over enthusiastic husky as happened to my dog walker then you are still capable of doing your other job.

Oh FFS - do you think it has only happened twice?

Similar happened to me. You can’t just make it up though! Your employer will only pay out if they consider they will potentially be liable in an employment tribunal.

What an odd thing to be jealous about!

Yes. I technically got a settlement agreement once in lieu of voluntary redundancy pay. They couldn't make me redundant because I was pregnant and that was against their policy, in case I said later that it was discrimination. Even if I wanted to resign and asked for the redundancy. To get around it they paid me a sum, and I signed to say that I will never come back to them with a tribunal or defame them for any reason, or they can ask for some of the money back.

It’s not always if the company has done something wrong. The costs of a tribunal, whether you’re found to have done something wrong or not, are high. It’s often a lot cheaper to just pay someone off rather than go to the cost and bother of a tribunal even if you’re confident you can win. Because there are rarely costs orders in the tribunal, the defendant will be thousands of pounds out of pocket even if they win, so it’s often a commercial decision to settle rather than spend those costs and the time on legal proceedings.

What a horrible thing to say. She lost her job because she complained about her working conditions. Wow -not a great friend are you

some you call your friend was forced out of their job. That’s happened to me and it’s incredibly traumatic even if you put a brave face on it. Maybe try to have some empathy

Not if you’re on garden leave. The point of that is to stop you working elsewhere and taking clients etc.

That doesn’t ring true. It’s extremely rare to get an award like that from a tribunal and no law firm would settle at that level.

The company next door to mine has a specific budget amount set aside for this.

Try what? They wanted to sack her because she complained. That’s illegal so they had to pay her off.

it is common in law firms to treat staff badly, ignore employment rights and have to pay staff off. She got less than a year’s salary and it Will damage her employment prospects and career