Hi I am pursuing a claim against the company I work for it has been running since Oct 2015. I have also been offered a redundancy /settlement package . But I have now been told by my union rep not to sign the paperwork terminating my employ because it may impact on my injury at work claim. Can anyone help.

Hello and welcome to CAG.

Please tell us what's happened for you to claim and why your rep told you not to sign.

Do you have two cases running, one for PI and one for something else, or just the one?

HB

Thread title amended.

Andy

Are the Trade Union Legal Services handling your personal injury claim??

If so contact the Union solictor dealing with your claim for advice

if you have lodged a formal claim for personal injury then redundancy wont make much difference as it wont change the liability. There may be some argument about a schedule of loss but I cant see that it will change the picture overall unless you are likely to suffer lost wages in the future for rehabilitation sessions or the like.

If you remain a member of the union they will continue with your claim. It may be that if you pay your subs via the branch they may worry about losing track of you once you have gone but that isnt any reason not to consider an offer if it is in your interests. Assuming that the severance package is one offered to a group of people and not just you one should be careful about rejecting it in case you get landed with statutory redundancy instead. You need to consider the offer carefully and get professional advice. Many companies will pay for a solicitor to read through the papers to make sure that you understand the offer, typically a sol will charge for half an hour to do this so not a big deal in the sceme of things to the employer, especially if several people are for the golden bullet.

Your union rep has told you not to sign. That is who you need to discuss this with. We don't know why they said this or what impact it may have. But ignoring your union rep is not a good idea. Especially not on the advice of a bunch of strangers on the internet who know nothing about the case.

Your union officials also have the power to sign any settlement agreement so you don't need a solicitor.

All Trade Unions have a legal services attached. They are real solicitors and the majority subscribe to "Union Line".

The Majority of local IR reps do not have the experience or training to handle these issues either. A matter like this wil go to area reps will full time release in liasion with the Trade Union HQ.

With any claim for compensation through a trade union the contract is with the solicitor to act on your behalf, not the Trade Union. It is the solicitor who is attached to that Trade Union you consult with, not the local rep.

I suspect the draft of the settlement agreement says that it settles all known claims. This is quite common.

With your union official's help, you may need to get that amended so that it does not cover your personal injury claim. Whether your employer would agree to this is another matter.

It's fine to sign a settlement agreement. However, you will be giving up your right to being a personal injury claim that you are currently aware of. If you sign an agreement in its standard wording then you won't be able to continue with the PI claim.

All you need to do is request that your current injury claim is excluded from the agreement and make sure an appropriate clause is written in before you sign anything.

Thanks very much everyone I have now sent the document from the company to my solicitor handling the PI claim so just waiting on a reply . Thanks to all of you. Replies very helpful.