In Hong Kong, it is common practice for employers to ask departing employees to sign a document confirming that the employee has been paid everything he is owed and that there are no other outstanding payments due to him. Such a confirmation is sometimes also accompanied by a waiver of rights, where the employee further agrees not to make any future claims against the employer. Once such a document is signed, the employer would usually not expect the employee to change his mind and subsequently make a claim, but unfortunately this does happen more often than one would expect, and sometimes the employee may even succeed, if he was in fact underpaid.
The question of whether or not a settlement agreement signed at the end of an employment relationship is enforceable has long been the subject of judicial scrutiny and the recent case of Dock Brian v. Pacific Gourmet Holdings Ltd1 examines it again.
In this case, the employer asked the employee to sign an agreement to increase his work hours from 9 to 10 hours per day but the employee refused. Later, the employer terminated him by giving him one month’s notice but without giving any reason for dismissal. On his last day of employment, the employer gave him a cheque for his last month’s salary and accrued holiday pay, and asked him to sign a document stating that:
“I checked the above calculation and hereby confirmed the final payment of my remuneration is correct and also confirmed there is no other outstanding amount owing to...
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