If you are considering an offer of Severance Benefits, call our Law Firm, our employment law attorneys can help. If you have been offered a severance package or severance benefits in Texas, call us immediately. Generally, because Texas is an employment at-will state (meaning that employers and employees can terminate the employment relationship for a good reason, bad reason, or no reason, so long as the reason is not an “illegal” reason. If you are offered a severance package it usually means that your employer feels exposed to a lawsuit for terminating you for an illegal reason, you have been subject to harassment or discrimination, or that they have violated their contract of employment with you.
Tips for Employees Offered a Severance Package. If you have been offered a severance package in San Antonio, Texas, it is recommended that you take heed of the following.
Do not sign anything right away. After breaking the bad news, the HR rep will try make you sign a release within two hours. Don't. If you're being cut as a part of a general layoff, you have at least three weeks to sign your severance package agreement, which is really an agreement to not sue the company. If you did sign it -- and if you're older than 40 --you can revoke your signature within a week. Call us immediately!
No severance package is take it or leave it. Negotiate. Your employer expects you to. The most important thing to them is that you do not sue and go away without controversy. They can't take away a severance package once they've already offered it. Call us!
Find out how many others are being cut from your particular office. If it's 50 or more, the WARN act requires your employer give you 60 days notice (or at least 60 days pay).
Make sure they offer continued health benefits. Federal law requires 18 months of continued coverage via COBRA. Sometimes you can make them pay for some of it.
Make sure you're getting the bonus you earned last year.
In fact, make sure you're getting paid for all your accrued benefits, such as sick days or vacation time.
Make sure your severance package is commensurate with your tenure. You should get more than the people who worked for you and peers who have been at the company for less time.
Evidentiary Considerations. As in most employment law claims, these cases are “she said, he said” type cases and therefore documenting everything that occurs is very important. You are encouraged to keep a diary or journal of what is going on at work as well as keeping copies of all correspondence to and from your employer (written complaints to the HR department, emails to and from your supervisor and/or coworkers, and any other relevant documents). If you are in San Antonio, or within the state of Texas, you can also make audio recordings of conversations without the other parties’ consent or knowledge as long as you are in the same room as the recording device. See this resource for the legalities of audio recordings in Texas.
Call Us!If you have been offered a severance package contact the attorneys of Carabin Shaw in San Antonio today. We offer a free initial telephone consultations regarding severance package negotiation and can possibly charge you a contingency fee on anything offered to you over and above the initial offer made to you. Our experienced San Antonio employment lawyers will know how to negotiate severance packages to maximize your recovery.
For immediate assistance and to set up a free consultation with one of our experienced lawyers, call us toll-free at 800-862-1260.
The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be