Legal Question in Employment Law in Texas

Laid off with no severance pay

I worked for a company for 8 years, I was recently laid off. The reason given was an elimination of my position. I'm pretty sure the real reason was that the company had recently hired a new CFO and he wanted to bring one of his own with him. The company did not give me any severance pay. When I asked about it they said they didn't do severance pay. I know for a fact in the past they paid another employee 1 months severance pay. She also worked in the accounting department and had only been employed for 1 and 1/2 years. Should I be entitled to the same severance pay? I also have imcriminating e-mails against my boss between him and another employee (female) in the department. Could these e-mails be used in a wrongful termination case? Three employees have been affected by the personal relationship between our boss and this other employee, we are all out of a job now. Would this be worth pursuing?


Asked on 7/08/03, 2:25 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Roger Evans Mathis & Donheiser

Re: Laid off with no severance pay

While your termination may well have been motivated for exactly the reason you propose, it is unlikely that you have a cause of action worth pursuing. In Texas, unless you have an employment contract that specifies otherwise, you can be terminated at any time for any reason whatsoever, or for no reason at all, unless the termination is motivated by discrimination based on age, sex, etc. or solely because you refused to perform a criminal act. There is also no entitlement to severance pay unless it is paid pursuant to an established company policy. The fact that someone else has received severance pay in the past might be some evidence of such a policy, but that does not mean that it is the current company policy to pay severance or that severance is owed in your case. Because you do not appear to have any claim for "wrongful termination" (a cause of action that does not even exist in Texas), the emails will likely be of little use on your behalf, even if they are as "incriminating" as you assert. Having stated all this, I recommend you consult with a lawyer skilled in employment law matters to explore all aspects of your situation, and not rely only on this general advice.

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Answered on 7/08/03, 2:44 pm


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