SEVERANCE PAY
bover
8 Posts
Can anyone tell me what the (if any) policy for Severance Pay is for the state of Florida? The company is in Canada, but has employees in multiple US states. I know we don't have a Severance Pay option in place and to my knowledge there have never been one in place in any of the US sites. We need to make some cutsbacks and I know there are only a few states that have regulations on Severance Pay, but I don't know if Florida is one of them.
Comments
Hi - the state of Florida does not have any regulations regarding severance packages. You do not have to offer anything if you do not wish too. Our company does provide a package (usually the right thing to do).
I'm not aware of any state that requires severance pay. There are requirements under the WARN act and you will want to be sure about it's applicability to your upcoming plans.
Companies generally offer severance in exchange for a release agreement. "Company really likes employee but now it's time for employee to go. If employee will go peacefully and promise not to sue for anything at all under the sun occurring prior to the date of signing (and lapse of any rescission period that may apply), Company will give employee a bunch of cash."
Sometimes a company will simply agree to continue to pay a person as if they were on payroll or perhaps continue their health insurance and cover the EE's share of the premium. There are a lot of ways to go. There are a lot of legal concerns and you should only use a release agreement written by an attorney familiar with the state and circuit of each affected employee. Be sure any attorney you might use can educate you without research on the ADEA requirements for such agreements.