On August 7, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed a disability discrimination claim brought by a former employee against Harvard University, ruling that the employee had released all claims against the University when she accepted the terms of her separation agreement. \u00a0The plaintiff, who worked as a nurse at Harvard University Health Services, took a total of three leaves of absence due to her Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.\u00a0 She alleged that upon returning from leave, her supervisors targeted her with unwarranted disciplinary actions; crafted new practices and procedures that made it impossible for her to satisfactorily complete her job duties; and treated her differently after she requested reasonable accommodation of her disability.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff was eventually terminated and was offered a separation agreement that provided her a lump sum payment, outplacement services, and a letter of reference in exchange for her release of all claims against the University (including any claims arising under the ADA).\u00a0 The agreement also encouraged the plaintiff to seek the advice of an attorney before signing, and provided her with 21 days to consider the offer.\u00a0 The plaintiff signed the separation agreement, and accepted the payments and services provided by the University under the agreement.\u00a0 Upon the University\u2019s motion to dismiss the plaintiff\u2019s complaint, the Court evaluated the validity of the separation agreement.\u00a0 The Court found that the plaintiff\u2019s release of ADA claims in the separation agreement was made knowingly and voluntarily, and therefore her claims were barred.\u00a0 In addition, the Court concluded that even if the plaintiff had been \u201cforced\u201d to sign the agreement (as she alleged), her subsequent acceptance of all benefits promised under the agreement served to ratify the agreement, and would waive her right to sue for the ADA claims released in the agreement.<\/p>\n
Client Tip:<\/strong>\u00a0 In appropriate circumstances, offering separation agreements to terminated employees \u2013 which often involves payment of a severance and\/or other forms of consideration in exchange for a release of all claims against the employer \u2013 can be an excellent way for both employers and employees to achieve finality over the parties\u2019 employment relationship and to avoid the uncertainty of potential future litigation related to the employment.\u00a0 As this case demonstrates, well-drafted and validly-executed separation agreements will be upheld by the courts and will prevent former employees from bringing employment-related claims after termination.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On August 7, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed a disability discrimination claim brought by a former employee against Harvard University, ruling that the employee had released all claims against the University when she accepted the terms of her separation agreement. The plaintiff, who worked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[23,25,26],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discrimination","tag-disability-discrimination","tag-separation-agreement","tag-terminated-employee"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n