Layoff Notice & Severance

[NDGirl]

I work for a company that just went through a merger. The new VP of my dept informed us 2 days after the merger took place that he was closing the Denver office. On 9/30 I received a voice mail from a HR rep stating that she was working on the layoff and severance packages and that the first week of November would be our last week. It is now 10/10 and we we have been requesting an exact date, but still assuming that the latest date would be 11/4. Now, the HR rep is stating that she is not sure when the last date will be and the new VP has told our director to "make the stay until they finish their projects." That probably should have been discussed prior to giving us the voice mail. Since we were informed that the last date would be the first week of November many of us have already secured jobs at other companies, but are all waiting to receive our severance. I guess what my question is: Can the company I currently work for now change the date of our last day? What rights do we have as employees to receive the severance since we were given a date over 2 weeks ago? Is there anything that we can do legally, is it worth us all hiring a lawyer if the date changes? Any information would help greatly.

[cbg]

Having been involved with many a merger, from both sides of the desk, I can tell you that it is quite common, quite legal, and almost inevitable that the dates will change, sometimes more than once. I have yet to see a merger in which this does not happen.

Severance is not required by law. If the date of the layoff changes and you have already left for another job, your employer has no obligation to pay you any severance.

Severance is not supposed to be a windfall. It is supposed to be income for the period in which you are looking for another job. If you leave for another job before the branch closes, why should the company offer you any bridge income?

[NDGirl]

Thank you for the response. We were just wondering if we, the employees, have any rights. None of us would have even looked for a job had we not been given the notice. If we each choose to take the new positions, we are all losing a lot in the terms of benefits because we have all been with the company for quite a while. The notice has changed already several times (from 06/06 to 03/06 to 12/05 to 11/05). It is not just the severance that is included in the package. There are also all of our stock options which vest when we are laid off, a bonus that was from Jan-July from the old company, a new bonus from Aug-date of layoff for the new company.

It sounds to me like the company has all the rights and can give dates and then change them with no problems. In this case, I honestly believe we were given a date (we have not officially been told as of today that this has changed) to get everyone to go look for a new job so no severance or bonus should have to be paid.

[cbg]

But they don't have to pay severance or a bonus anyway. No law requires it.

A merger is very fluid. It would be next to impossible to set a firm date and never waiver from it. There are too many hands in the pie and too many things that need to get done. There are details involving outside parties that may not respond as expected (health insurance carrier re: COBRA and closing out the plan; the IRS with regards to merging the 401k plans; DOL with questions about wage issues etc.). It would be a miracle indeed if the initial date set was actually met, not because the company deliberately and maliciously changed it in order to cheat you out of a severance package, but because the necessities of closing down a branch and merging the rest of the company did not get completed in the initially proposed time period.

[NDGirl]

Again, thank you for the information. Just to give you a little more information on the situation, the merger was complete on August 1st. The company began advertising as one on Sept 1. The whole closing of the office was totally the decision of the new VP. He told us prior to the closing of the merger that he wanted to close the Denver office - he didn't want to manager more than 1 office. It is just a bad situation all around and we all just feel that it is our life that the company is messing with, and none of have a clue what to do.

[cbg]

Nothing you have posted even remotely suggests that any laws have been violated or that you have any kind of legal recourse.