contract-law employment
Is termination of (employment) contract binding, without regarding estoppel/waiver
<p>I am speaking in the sense of employment contract, but I believe the same scenario is applicable to all kinds of contracts.</p>
<p>The employer exercises their power to terminate Alice, and pay in lieu of notice as required by law (and also contract). Employer and Employee signed a document stating the above.</p>
<p>However a few days later, the employer changed his mind and decided that it is a summary dismissal, and he will not pay in lieu of notice (as it is not required by law and employment contract).</p>
<p>Let's assume for academic purpose we can not argue from the point of waiver by election/waiver by estoppel, and the legality of summary dismissal itself.</p>
<p>What I want to ask is</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Can the employer switch from termination to summary dismissal? (which I believe is yes, as most  judgement I see only argues employer cannot go back in his word because of waiver)</p>
</li>
<li><p>Is the termination document a binding contract, especially considering</p>
<p>a. Does it have a consideration, i.e. can the termination itself be a consideration?</p>
<p>b. Does it constitute an agreement, as employee cannot actually refuse it?</p>
</li>
<li><p>My ultimate goal is actually only to get the payment in lieu of notice, are there any other way to do that, other than argue on the legality of summary dismissal / waiver?</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>In general, is there any way to protect termination of contract, if termination itself is not binding? I am sure I miss something as I cannot believe the world works like that.</p>

<h2>The signed document is almost certainly a contract</h2>
<p>See <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/6263/what-is-a-contract-and-what-is-required-for-them-to-be-valid">What is a contract and what is required for them to be valid?</a></p>
<p>It contains all the required elements:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Intention to create legal relations.</strong> There is no doubt that the parties intended that this agreement would end their previous employment contract.</li>
<li><strong>Agreement.</strong> Obviously.</li>
<li><strong>Consideration.</strong> By making this particular agreement both parties are giving up rights that they had under the employment contract and at law, that is sufficuient consideration.</li>
<li><strong>Legal Capacity.</strong> Assuming they had capacity to enter the original employment contract they probably have it now. Unless one of them was drunk. Or insane.</li>
<li><strong>Genuine Consent.</strong> There is no information given that suggests this wasn’t a genuine agreement.</li>
<li><strong>Legality of Objects.</strong> It’s not illegal to terminate employment.</li>
</ul>
