What to Check Before Signing a Termination or Settlement Agreement

No — you're not obliged to sign anything immediately. Taking it away to review (ideally with a lawyer) before signing is standard practice, and a reasonable employer won't pressure you to decide on the spot.

This matters — the stated reason determines what notice period and severance apply, and whether the termination is valid at all. A mismatch is one of the more common grounds for challenging a termination. See wrongful employment termination for how that plays out in practice.

It depends on the stated reason for termination — statutory severance generally applies to redundancy and certain organisational reasons, not to termination for cause. How employment termination works in the Czech Republic covers which grounds carry a severance entitlement.

It can — many settlement agreements include a clause confirming you have no further claims against the employer, which is exactly why reviewing the document before signing matters more than the checklist items alone.

Untaken statutory holiday is generally paid out as compensation rather than forfeited, regardless of how the employment ends — this should be reflected in the final settlement, not left informal.

Not automatically — it depends on how it was agreed and whether it meets the legal requirements for that type of restriction, including in many cases compensation for the restricted period. A clause that was never properly agreed may not hold up.

Immediate termination ends employment the day it's delivered, with no notice period, and is only valid on narrow legal grounds — see what immediate termination of employment actually means for when it can and can't be used.