Unfair Severance Package Offered to Me
If I work at a Company for 15 plus years and go on maternity leave and get a part-time position there and work 7 months part-time and get laid off and the Company offers me a package based on my part-time salary instead of my full-time years of service, is that legal? Can I fight it?
1 answer | asked Nov 1, 2002 9:49 PM [EST] | applies to New York
Answers (1)
Right to Severance
Generally, employees have no right to a severance package. If terminated, about the only thing they are entitled to receive, beyond the last week of pay, is any unpaid vacation or annual leave.
With a very few companies, there might be an exception if the company has a severance plan. If there is a plan, your rights would be explained in a benefits book called a summary plan description.
In rare cases, employees might be able to claim the existance of a severance plan, even though there is no formal severance plan. This would be very difficult to prove. You would have to that the employer had a regular practice of providing severance according to a fairly regular formula.
But, the likelihood is that you are not entitled to severance at all. If the employer is giving you anything, it is voluntary on the part of the employer.
In the facts that you relate, I'd be more interested in knowing more about the motivation of the employer in selecting you for termination. In my years of practice, I have seen that some employers have a regular practice of terminating woman of child bearing age after they have had their first child. I consider this a form of gender-based discrimination. The employers often wait a few months after the birth to avoid being accused of pregnancy discrimination, which is another form of gender-based discrimination.
posted by David M. Lira | Nov 4, 2002 10:12 AM [EST]
Generally, employees have no right to a severance package. If terminated, about the only thing they are entitled to receive, beyond the last week of pay, is any unpaid vacation or annual leave.
With a very few companies, there might be an exception if the company has a severance plan. If there is a plan, your rights would be explained in a benefits book called a summary plan description.
In rare cases, employees might be able to claim the existance of a severance plan, even though there is no formal severance plan. This would be very difficult to prove. You would have to that the employer had a regular practice of providing severance according to a fairly regular formula.
But, the likelihood is that you are not entitled to severance at all. If the employer is giving you anything, it is voluntary on the part of the employer.
In the facts that you relate, I'd be more interested in knowing more about the motivation of the employer in selecting you for termination. In my years of practice, I have seen that some employers have a regular practice of terminating woman of child bearing age after they have had their first child. I consider this a form of gender-based discrimination. The employers often wait a few months after the birth to avoid being accused of pregnancy discrimination, which is another form of gender-based discrimination.
posted by David M. Lira | Nov 4, 2002 10:12 AM [EST]
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