It’s employment contract renewal time and a new paragraph entitled ‘Dismissal Indemnification’ has snuck it’s way in… It is agreed that you already now assign to XYZ Corp Branch any possible legal claim to a dismissal indemnification or any other payment which may be paid to you during and/or on the occasion of the termination of your secondment due to law or practice. In case that the aforementioned agreement should - for whatever reason - become void, XYZ Corp is entitled to set off those payments against your future salary claims.
This is the first time I have heard of the term ‘Dismissal Indemnification’ (my best guess is that it implies a severance package). It has never been mentioned in any previous contract and I’m also not aware of any previous agreement entered into that this clause suggests exists.
I am concerned that this is a surreptitious attempt to get me to waive any rights I may have to contesting a severance package should the situation arise.
Does anyone speak ‘legalese’ who can translate this clause into plain English and let me know what the implications are?
Uh, this is peculiar. Are you working for some company other than your employer (i.e., like a temp or a contract worker?) The way this reads to me, you’re working for company X while company Y pays you. If company X terminates the contract, they may have to pay an indemnity (sort of like severance, in a way). This clause gives company Y (who pays your check) the right to any money company X gives you. If you don’t have a two-employer situation like this, the term “termination of secondment” doesn’t apply to you, and you should go ask “why is this in my contract?”
It appears to be a sort of “double-dipping” prohibition, in other words.
Yes you are quite correct. I have been working on secondment overseas during which time I have been under contract to an offshore subsidiary X of the main company Y (but actually working in a different country Z from either of them). My salary has still been paid by the parent company.
I am now relocating to a different country and although still overseas I am being asked to resign from the subsidiary and revert to a contract with the parent company. It is in this new contract that the clause arises.
…so from what you say I am right in thinking this clause gives the parent company Y the rights to any severance payment from company X that I am contracted to.
I guess this allows for an instant transfer of my contract from one entity to the other without the requirement for payment of a notice period or the like. I guess it is the term ‘dismissal indemnification’, which conjures ideas of abrupt termination, that put my guard up.