What happens to moving expenses that were promised and only partially received if an employee quits?

An employee was promised the sum of $25,000 for moving expenses and has only submitted receipts so far for $5,000.  Is he entitled to the remaining $25,000 if he voluntarily leaves the company after 6 months?  The company has recently laid off 90% of it's workforce and may have additional layoffs in the future.  The company has so far stated that it will only reimburse through resceipts but the employee is now leary of moving the rest of the household since there is so much volatility and uncertainty about the security of the job.  This employee may be securing a more stable position with another company in the future and would like to know his options.

Comments

  • 3 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Do you have a relocation policy?  Hopefully so and it should have verbiage concerning an employee leaving for any reason within a designated timeframe - reimbursement (pro-rated).  Anything at all in writing?
  • I do not believe that he received any conditions.  We do have an offer letter that states the following:

    Recognizing that you will need to relocate we are pleased to offer the following relocation consideration: Relocation assistance of allowable expense and IRS non-taxable relocation expenses up to a maximum amount of $25,000 gross. 

    I will have to check and see if there is a policy but I do not beleive he signed anything.

  • [quote user="lcmtraining"]

    I do not believe that he received any conditions.  We do have an offer letter that states the following:

    Recognizing that you will need to relocate we are pleased to offer the following relocation consideration: Relocation assistance of allowable expense and IRS non-taxable relocation expenses up to a maximum amount of $25,000 gross. 

    I will have to check and see if there is a policy but I do not beleive he signed anything.

    [/quote]

    Where else would people discuss a $25,000 exchange and put nothing in writing with signed acknowledgements?  That will make it very difficult to disentangle the whole situation.  If you discuss this with counsel, ask your counselor what he or she thinks about the employee's case under the theory of "detrimental reliance".

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