Legal Question in Business Law in Virginia

Re: Temination Agreement

Your question is very short, and I have to make a lot of assumptions about what I think you are saying...

However, an employer CANNOT change the rules or the agreemnet as you are heading out the door.

This is a very, very bad habit, which I find contemptible.

If you were entiteld to pay and vacation pay under the original agreement, they cannot change the deal at the end.

SO they cannot ask you to sign anything that changes the original deal or adds anything new to the agreement or restricts you in any way.

Employers do this all the time. It is wrong. They do not include provisions in the original agreement (such as confidentiality, non-competition, etc., etc.) but then when they let you go they want you to sign away your rights and want to impose new restrictions and limitations.

No, they cannot do that.

NOW, if they are giving you MORE money than they actually owe you in return for signing a new agreement, they CAN do that. But they cannot place any new or higher restrictions or limitations on you UNLESS THEY ARE PAYING YOU MORE MONEY (more than they would already owe anyway).

On the other hand, if they are only asking you to sign some kind of receipt or acknowledgement of receiving the money or of the total amount owed or acknowledging that you PREVIOUSLY -- ALREADY -- agreed to some restrictions or limitations, they could probably get away with requiring you to sign that.

The key is that they CANNOT demand that you sign anything that includes any new promises from you or adds any new obligations or limitations on you simply to give you the same money that they ALREADY owe you.

Even if you don't sign, they still owe you the money anyway.

And so you could sue them for the unpaid money.

BEFORE YOU TELL THEM "NO," YOU SHOULD ASK THEM POLITELY (AS IF YOU ARE GOING TO SIGN) TO FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH THEY OWE YOU, AND PUT THIS IN A LETTER OR MEMO TO YOU. (Or bring a witness with you to listen as they tell you, like your wife or friend.)

That way if you have to sue you, they have already admitted what they owe you.