is this insane or am i

[sam5570]

well the company my wife works for is closing there doors this month the hr person told them that if another company came in and bought them out before the close date that if they ofered her a job at less money per hour than she making now that she had to take the job or she would loose several thousand dollars in severence pay in other words take the job or loose your severence has anyone delt with this before just thought i would ask before i go to lawers.

 

[murphy1244]

Does she have a contract? without that you have no standing.

 

[MF1433V]

well the company my wife works for is closing there doors this month the hr person told them that if another company came in and bought them out before the close date that if they ofered her a job at less money per hour than she making now that she had to take the job or she would loose several thousand dollars in severence pay in other words take the job or loose your severence has anyone delt with this before just thought i would ask before i go to lawers.

If your state is an employment at will state than they can do it. They are essentially saying she has to take a pay cut, take it or leave it. If she refuses she is quitting and losing her severance. It sucks, but I don't think an attorney will be able to help her. Sorry to say

 

[sam5570]

no contract it's a factory 320 people loose there jobs there is just something wrong with someone forcing you to go to work for someone else insane

 

[riptides]

Happened all the time to me in the past working contracts. Lost contract, time to rebid/ reapply for job.

Luck would have it, I always ended up moving forward.

 

[SPIKER]

Yep: also if she refuses she also may not be able to collect unemployment insurance as she will be considered Quit and not fired/released or terminated. so NEW company gets to keep the banked unemployment in their kitty.

M

 

[KTurner]

no contract it's a factory 320 people loose there jobs there is just something wrong with someone forcing you to go to work for someone else insane

The flip side of the coin is that the factory is obviously not able to stay afloat in the current market with its current expenses (else they wouldn't be closing, right?). If a new owner/boss can make the factory stay afloat by adjusting payroll (and probably other) costs down, then they can save those several hundred jobs, and probably other jobs in the process. Closed factories mean no factory workers buying lunch from the local eateries, less tax revenues for the local govt (who will just jack up everyone elses taxes to make up for it), etc.

Maybe the pay reduction would be small? Would your wife rather have a job or the lump sum? Maybe she could talk to the current owner/management about an early out/retirement right NOW so that she doesn't have to risk a new owner? It would probably be smaller than the severance if she stayed on til the end, but it would also be reducing her risk (assuming she just wants the severance and no job). Wouldn't hurt to ask...

Keith

 

[riptides]

Yep: also if she refuses she also may not be able to collect unemployment insurance as she will be considered Quit and not fired/released or terminated. so NEW company gets to keep the banked unemployment in their kitty.

M

Good point.

 

[Tollster]

I believe there is a limit on how much of a cut they can impose. There is no way they can force her to accept an unreasonable amount of money if she cannot pay the bills she was paying prior to the cut if unemployment pays more, not sure what the percentage is though.

 

[300UGUY]

I believe there is a limit on how much of a cut they can impose. There is no way they can force her to accept an unreasonable amount of money if she cannot pay the bills she was paying prior to the cut if unemployment pays more, not sure what the percentage is though.

The only limit would be minimum wage. This happens a lot. I doubt that a lawyer would do much good.

 

[Bikewanderer]

Seems like a lot of effort focused on a lot of hypotheticals. Sorry to hear about her job, but I would use that energy elsewhere.

 

[texasjohn]

Am not an expert, but all comments so far match what I understand is possible and legal.

 

[3930dave]

Wow - if that original post is true, then the never ending Race To The Bottom is actually much further along in North America than I thought. That's saying something, as I'm generally not considered a starry-eyed optimist.

Up here (Canada, Ontario) Severance and Employment Insurance are separate (in this context) issues. Last I checked anyway.

The original company owes the employee severance, in lieu of notice. Not unreasonable, IMO.

What severance does here is push out your eligibility (in time) for employment insurance. Again, makes sense to me. If you are getting a lump severance, then most people would want to defer starting EI.

We do have various requirements here for starting and ongoing EI eligibility, but as far as I know, they are treated separately from any legacy severance issues.

The worst I had to deal with here (so far), was having to decide to quit a company that was going bankrupt, after I had been put on indefinite Layoff. Back then, I was able to collect a few pennies in severance, as opposed to waiting for a recall notice that would never come and getting nothing.

Modern business practices are anything but pretty; sorry to hear that you are up against this.

These same companies then turn around, and complain about lack of employee loyalty. :confused2:

Rgds, D.

 

[CBW1999]

You can always check with state government that covers labor laws. It won't cost you anything, if they say something is fishy then you can get more employees to make similar complaints and then likely the state would get involved.

Unfortunately, one person complaining doesn't get the state too interested usually but if a lot come forward......

 

[Scooby074]

If your state is an employment at will state than they can do it. They are essentially saying she has to take a pay cut, take it or leave it. If she refuses she is quitting and losing her severance. It sucks, but I don't think an attorney will be able to help her. Sorry to say

"At will employment" sounds great!!! Where so I sign up?

/kidding :thumbsdown:

 

[zzvyb6]

Think of it this way, she's probably competing with another person and another government in some part of the world who will do the same job for 1/10 of the pay. Add some shipping, forget power and rail costs, subsidized health care, taxes, property taxes, taxes on profits, taxes on Texas, tacks on excess, and taxes on cesses. Don't mention evironmental rules and regulations and of course union contracts and the game should be pretty clear. Take a step back and look thru all the posts on this forum concerned with not wanting to pay dealer costs for product and parts. Instead buying Nigerian, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Indian, Pakistan, Beluchastan, Palookastan, Bananastan and Candystan made tractors and implements, and you should get the feeling on how few members give a thought to the impact of their purchase decisions. When their ox gets AlGored, they whine like a aerated hydraulic pump. But when they go shopping, the price is everything. Screw their neighbor. BTW, guess how many countries came to the aid of hurricane Sandy victims...

Anyone know where I can get an oil pump for a North Korean made 1 wheeled tractor that runs on ant feces? Got me a deal direct shipped from the People's Kaching Prison, Barbed Wire, Land Mine and Tractor factory...

 

[Ken45101]

The "severence" is a voluntary offering from the company. "Good will" on their part.

We are in a period of "wage deflation". It's nasty, but it's reality. Many companies are having a hard time surviviing. You either take what they offer, or go find another job.

Our whole division (information technology) was outsourced 12 years ago. Those that couldn't take early retirement ended up in a poor situation, no where near as good as they had it before. Now I understand the company is considering bringing the work back in house. Predictably, the quality of the outsourced work is not as good as it used to be. But I'm sure the company saved big bucks in the process.

 

[Egon]

Just curious, how many layers in the ownership?

 

[MossRoad]

Take the pay cut, take the severance, cash the severance and find another job.

 

[jinman]

well the company my wife works for is closing there doors this month the hr person told them that if another company came in and bought them out before the close date that if they ofered her a job at less money per hour than she making now that she had to take the job or she would loose several thousand dollars in severence pay in other words take the job or loose your severence has anyone delt with this before just thought i would ask before i go to lawers.

Sam, your description of the situation doesn't make sense to me. Is her company going to pay her severance if the other company buys them out and she stays on with them at lower pay? That sounds like a good deal to me. She gets a lump-sum severance and continues in a job at lower pay. At some point, she is vested in the severance and would not have to pay it back. She could resign and go to some other job somewhere else.

Now, if the company is saying that there will be no severance if they get bought out and jobs are offered at lower pay, then the situation stinks a bit, but there's no loss of severance because it was never offered. Isn't unemployment much less also? I don't see anything illegal in offering someone lower pay to keep their job. I also think the new company will have less than loyal employees who will be looking for other employment.