Legal Question in Employment Law in California

severence pay, possible wrongful termination

After working for 26 years with the same company, they recently outsourced our department. The company has been through many lay offs and in the past they have always provided severance pay, 1 week pay for each 1 year service. When we were given our notice of the outsourcing, we were told that if we did not accept a position with the new company that we would not be entitled to our severance pay as they would see it as voluntarily quitting. So basically, we were forced to go to work with the new company, quit or retire. They did give severance pay to the ones that retired. Is this legal to force us to work for the new company or penalize us for not?


Asked on 5/22/07, 12:44 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Kirschbaum Law Offices of Michael R. Kirschbaum

Re: severence pay, possible wrongful termination

Employers are not required to pay severance, unless it is contracted for or part of a defined benefit plan which is vested. In most cases, it is discretionary, which means the employer may set whatever terms and conditions they want to (assuming it is not applied discriminatorily). It may be possible to argue that there is an implied contract created by past performance but these are very difficult cases to win in court. You should have your situation reviewed by an experienced employment law attorney to get a more informed opinion.

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Answered on 5/22/07, 12:16 pm


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