Legal Question in Employment Law in New York

There is no legal requirement that an employer provide severance pay to a discharged employee, unless the employer has its own internal severance program. If the employer has a severance program, then the employer must comply with the terms of that formal program.

Federal and New York law both have Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification (WARN) Acts, which require certain employers to provide NOTICE to employees prior to a mass layoff (60 days for federal and 90 days for NY). The federal WARN Act applies to employers with more than 100 employees shutting down a site which lays off at least 50 employees. The NY Act applies to employers with 50 or more employees laying off at least 25 persons. These are notice requirements, not severance requirements, and only apply to large-scale layoffs.