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  1. #1
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    Apr 2012
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    Default Severance Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

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

    I was currently let go by my employer because they couldn't get their finances in order. So, they had to close the local office. I was promised, in writing, severence, but now the empolyer says it will not be able to live up to that because they have no money. They tried to offer me a position at another office in another distant city, but due to family obligations, and frankly, I don't want to live my community where I am now, I refused the position. The employer shot back by saying tha I had effectively resigned because I did not accept this other position. Do I have a case? Options?

    THank you.

    Richard

  2. #2
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    Sep 2011
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    Default Re: Severence Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

    Your option is to file for UI. We don't know what the writing says, so we cannot advise you as to its enforceability in court.

  3. #3
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    Jun 2006
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    Massachusetts
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    Default Re: Severence Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

    Show your written agreement to an attorney in Texas, who will be able to determine if it constitutes a legally binding and enforceable agreement. However, be aware that unless a severance policy or agreement has been written very carelessly, a refusal of available work almost always voids any severance agreement.

    The bottom line is that ONLY an attorney in your state who has read your agreement in full can say if you are entitled to severance or not.

  4. #4
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    Apr 2012
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    Default Re: Severence Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

    Quote Quoting cbg
    View Post
    However, be aware that unless a severance policy or agreement has been written very carelessly, a refusal of available work almost always voids any severance agreement..
    Really? Great. I will seek legal advice locally, but this does sound crappy to me. Why should I have to accept a position hundreds of miles away because employer couldn't get his act together locally? Jeez.

    Thank you.

  5. #5
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    Massachusetts
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    Default Re: Severence Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

    What you need to understand is that in 47 out of 50 states, including yours, severance is NEVER required by law. In the remaining three states, it is SOMETIMES required by law but only in very specific circumstances (which vary by state). In at least one of the three (Not enough detail to say in the second case and I can't remember the requirements in the third case) the circumstances you have described are NOT the ones in which severance is mandated.

    Therefore, severance is almost always determined by company policy. In some cases, severance is still available when a transfer (or a transfer of over x miles) is available, but that is strictly company specific and is not mandated by law.

    From the employer's perspective, why should they pay out severance when they've offered you a job and you've turned it down?

    So you really will have to have an attorney review the policy.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    4

    Default Re: Severence Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

    Thank you again. It seems to me that the expectation and agreement of the severance would be directly linked to the location to which I have been employed. I was employed by the Dallas office to work in Dallas. Also, it seems odd to be offered a position at another location by the same employer and yet they claim that they do not have the money to pay severance. So, if I go to the new location, they will be able to pay me? So, there is money...hmmm.

    Anyway, thank you again. This stuff is frustrating at best.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
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    Massachusetts
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    Default Re: Severence Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

    There is no legal expectation that if you are hired to work in Dallas, that means that the company cannot relocate you. It's also entirely possible that different branches of the company may have differences in profitabilty. Or they may be closing some offices in order to increase profitability in others.

    The bottom line is, and I truly do not mean this nastily although I realize it may sound so, is that you are assuming entitlements that you simply do not have. People get transferred, voluntarily or involuntarily, all the time. There is NO obligation to allow you to continue to work in the office where you were hired. There is NO obligation to pay severance at all. If they said, "Soccerprp, effective Monday you work out of the Nome, Alaska office; here's the name of a reliable moving company and the reservation information at a Nome hotel where you can stay until you find an apartment there, and if you don't want to move to Nome, Alaska then you've got no job and no severance, and you have to make up your mind right now", that would be legal.

    I'm not unsympathetic, believe me. But the law simply does not get that deeply involved in how the employer runs his business.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
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    OH10
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    Default Re: Severance Promised, but Employer Refuses to Pay

    To give you an analogy OP, a former company I worked for, had layoffs countrywide. One site manager, out of the locations laying off, decided to be a butt head. He told UI that anyone laid off, could transfer to another location not laying off. Not a single employee at his location received UI, whereas they did at other locations, not disputing the layoff.

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