Severance Package Issues

[Leonard Bedner]

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: New York

My company recently had lay offs in the middle of September, 2008. While the majority of the people were to leave immediately, myself and various others were asked to stay roughly 3 months, until December 15th. Now, everyone was given a severance package contract to sign, and in mine, it stated that if I stay until December 15th, I would receive my package. For the others that were told to leave immediately, they would (and have) receive theirs November 1st.

Well, a few weeks ago, some people on my team wanted to amend their contracts, and be able to leave earlier (we had all found jobs by then). Now, our parent company is based in Japan, and our boss speaks Japanese fluently, so he agreed to talk to them about some ways to amend it.

Somewhere along the way, the process stalled, and the CEO of our parent company actually flew out to New York City, met with our boss, and after very long and heated arguments, the CEO decided to say that "all" of us were fired, without severance.

Now here's the thing: I have a signed piece of paper saying that I would receive severance if I stayed until 12/15. I have held up my part of the agreement, and I haven't signed anythng else/ Can they legally withhold severance from me?

[cbg]

Only an attorney in your state who has read the paper you signed and all other relevant documentation can say. We cannot interpret the enforceability of an agreement we have not read.