Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Company bullying someone into quitting to avoid payout?
My husband worked for a large fortune 500 company and they sold his particular division so that now they are privately held.
1 of the conditions of the sale was the new company uphold the severance policy of the original company.
Since the new company has taken over, they have decreased staff & hired new people @ lower salaries. My husband has been told for the past 3 years that it is just a matter of time before his position is eliminated. They cut his pay 10% with no notification whatsoever. He approached his supervisor to inform him that since we moved to this state from a lower cost of living state, we would no longer be able to afford to live here. He asked for them to consider eliminating his position now and his supervisor told him he would work up the severance package. This is all documented in e-mail correspondence. In the most recent communication from his supervisor, he was told that they will not offer him a severance package due to ''performance issues''. He has never been spoken to about performance issues, nor is there any documentation backing up the company's claim.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Company bullying someone into quitting to avoid payout?
Severance is paid for lay off, not for performance firings. If they lay a paper trail, or even if they don't, there is no obligation to pay severance unless the company policy requires it [highly unlikely in performance firing].
If they fire him, as an at will employee he has little remedy. He might consider trying now, before firing, to convince them to honor their severance policy as you described, based upon their history of saying job elimination is pending. Contact me if interested in doing so.
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