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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    1

    Default Date of Severance Pay Agreement - is a Verbal Contract Ok

    My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: Pennsylvania.

    I was suddenly relieved of my duties in December, 2011, when severance pay did not matter in PA, and on that date my employer offered me a good severance package if I would agree to train my replacement. I agreed immediately, but they refused to sign (or allow me to sign) the separation/severance agreement they had drawn up until after the training was complete, in January 2012 when the new law which includes severance pay offsets went into effect. However, if the severance agreement is deemed to have taken place in 2011, I would receive more weeks of unemployment compensation.

    My arguments are the following:

    • An offer and acceptance was made in December, 2011.
    • If I had refused the offer, I would not have not been allowed to return to work the next day, despite the fact that the company's letter of separation dated in December 2011 states that I would remain an employee through January, 2012. (What would I do as a hostile employee relieved of my duties? Stare out the window for six weeks?)
    • An adhesion contract (in which one party has no bargaining power) was verbally agreed to in December, 2011.
    • The employer could hardly have refused to sign the agreement or deny the severance after I had completed my part of the bargain--meaning the verbal contract in December 2011 was valid and enforceable.
    • The company's letter of separation dated in December 2011 states that "the only precondition to receiving severance is training your replacement."
    • The signed contract in January, 2012 was nothing but a formality.


    So, the questions are: does any definition of "date of severance agreement" exist in the new PA unemployment law? If not, would an adhesion contract as outlined above win out over the idea that "the only thing that matters is the date the agreement was signed"?

    Thanks.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    1,360

    Default Re: Date of Severance Pay Agreement - is a Verbal Contract Ok

    Do you really have an appeal scheduled for this issue currently?

    I think that the time to fight your serverance offset was something you should have done back in January, 2012, and that it's way too late to be doing this now.

    Also, in January, 2012, those extra weeks of benefits had only been extended through March 3, 2012, so you had no way of knowing then that there was going to be any extra benefits. It wasn't until late February, 2012, that the benefits were extended throughout the duration of 2012, and even now, you still don't know that you're going to be shorted because the benefits could be extended again into 2013, and maybe through the whole year.

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