True. I’d even say it’s the minority case where the initial offer is *that* far down the scale, but it’s not different in principle from the general practice. The extent to which its a matter of trying to pull a fast one versus just trying to leave extra bargaining room…varies from situation to situation.
But – outside of extreme examples like Rubin v. Home Depot – setting aside releases is not an easy thing to do. Consideration won’t usually be the problem; particularly at the point of termination, there’s no vested entitlement to pay in lieu of common law notice. They’re common law damages, subject to the duty to mitigate. Take an employee in your scenario, who signs the Release for 12 weeks’ pay, then obtains a new job with equivalent remuneration the next day. The extra 4 weeks is a pure windfall, in that case, which never would have been obtained in Court.
