Looks Like Company Severance Plans Are Downsized, Too
By Susie Madrak Thursday Mar 19, 2009 4:00pmIn other words, just because employees at your company got decent severance packages in previous rounds of layoffs doesn't mean you can count on it for yourself:
Just a month before a fourth round of layoffs in December, Geonerco Management Inc. reduced its severance plan. Laid-off workers would get just two weeks of pay, rather than a package based on length of service.
"We needed to take every reasonable step to conserve cash to make it through this very tough time," says Greg Szymanski, director of human resources for the Seattle-based real-estate development firm.
Geonerco's policy change is part of a broader effort by some employers to curb severance costs. Some 20% of companies polled in December by Hewitt Associates Inc., a human-resources consulting firm in Lincolnshire, Ill., said they plan to change severance policies and 31% are considering such a move.
For the most part, employers that are downsizing severance packages say they are facing mounting financial pressures. Hewitt's survey found that 43% of firms planning severance-policy changes expect to reduce cash payments, while 21% intend to trim other benefits.
Similarly, a survey conducted earlier this year by Hay Group Inc., shows that 61% of employers planning or considering changes aim to do so by downgrading their offerings to laid-off workers.
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watch out if your employer starts sending you home early or writing up silly infractions about your performance all of a sudden. Esp. if you are a long time veteran. Once you are cut loose, they will say you were fired for cause, relieving them of the obligation to pay unemployment bennies.
have never had a severance package.
The usual 6 weeks for corporate employees was cut down to 2 by the time they made their way to me.
Edit: oops...this was meant to be a general comment and not a reply to yours.
our big boss man recently announced that due the upcoming round of layoffs he was giving us an "opportunity":
we could go to management--without knowing just who is going to be let go--and offer to work for less money, or without OT pay. so, even if we weren't going to be let go (since they are not saying who is, obviously), we might screw ourselves and agree to work for 75%, when our jobs weren't in jeopardy in the first place.
yay!!
Finished, well done, we're screwed. Don't you see it?
Considering that unless its in your contract, no company should pay you more than the legal requirement.
If they are violating contracts, I see lots of lawsuits.
Been there eight months or so, left my previous job last year because I had had enough of the BS there, so got a new job for less money, but less stress and more people to work with.
Anyway was reading through the company handbook a while ago, looking for the pay section and performance pay increases (haha) a paragraph at most, the rest of the fifty pages is the usual 'dont be a bad boy' rules and regulations stuff.
I reckon most people's contracts are prob worthless regarding employees rights and benefits, unless a person works in the better companies.
My previous company had a quite progressive rulebook, copy pasted from somewhere, but it was merely fancy window dressing left over from when they applied for and got a nice grant for expanding the factory, and then mostly ignored by management in day to day stuff.
For example; MSDS kept in a locked filing cabinet in the office, working with poisonous chemicals in a closed off room and no periodic checks to see if somebody was passed out from the fumes...
That shit gets old very quickly.
Many people get screwed over and don't think they can get a lawyer or think they will be screwed if they make a fuss.
Your comment leads me to believe you've never witnessed the carnage of layoffs and/or "reorganization". It's really fun when done in stages and everyone is wondering when the dime is going to drop on them. People are promised certain things to "retire" early or whatever they call it. If you are one of the first to go, you generally get a better deal (as the incentive to volunteer to lay yourself off). The ones that stay usually have a deal too, maybe not as generous, but it's a deal. Then whoops! things are so "bad" when your turn comes that all deals are off. And I am not talking about fancy financial organizations with the sophisticated acctg. I'm talking SOP at well established scions of industry that know how slash and burn.
fortunately, my friend and fiance have the stones to go to an atty who worked for contingency fees vs. money out of screwee's pocket. They took handfuls of his cards and passed them out to their friends. And yes, as you predict, they were successful. But many many businesses will bank on the fact that many many people will NOT know they can sue and they save money. It still takes guts and knowing what your rights are and actually taking action that makes the difference.
It's all about the benjamins.
MAXIMUM PAIN here this next 8 and half months you better be ready.
So let us examine this. If you were good enough to make to the end then you get less than the people who in many (not all) cases were more likely to be less productive. This is exactly what is wrong with things. The producers get the shaft and the mediocre get the cash.
America - Keep rewarding crap.
misconception that people laid off were the ones not doing a good job
I used to work in an outplacement company. When a company lays off people -- most laid off are good employees. I've seen bosses agonize over who to lay off because they didn't have any bad employees. The company told them they had to let X number of people go. That means lots of good people lose a job.
And it has always been a common practice that as a company loses more and more money and must lay off more and more people that the severance packages get worse.
How companies and bad management self destruct.
Back in the early eighties and then the nineties it was manufacturing that got the shaft twice, now its time for middle class office drones to feel the pain.
So don't expect the blue collar types to be too indignant over the middle woes, welcome to our world of boom bust and poverty.
Babies born in the U.S.
And hows this help?
Keith Olbermann's Special Comment just did a major smackdown on Corporate America.
Keith ever uttered - that which may not be said in TV land - regulation of cable news ownership. Keith didn't suffer these corporate fools and spared none of these corporate sacred cows.
did any company legally have to give any kind of compensation? Any that do, do so voluntarily.
"Looks Like Company Severance Plans Are Downsized, Too"
The Guillotine Workers of America have called for a general strike.
In January our company laid off a large number of people and offered a reasonable severance package of 60 hours pay for every year of service. However, the number of people affected triggered a 60 day notice under WARN laws. So here's what they did:
Everyone affected was told so but because of the law they were not terminated right then - it would take effect in 60 days. So they went home and continued receiving their pay for the 60 day period. The catch was - the company was taking the pay for that 60 days OUT OF THE SEVERANCE ALLOWANCE. It's probably not illegal, but it does come across as rather petty.
Lets face it folks, many companies are taking advantage of their hard working employees during the downturn. Even if the company is not doing as well as past years, they will use the bad economy to get concessions from their workers. I see it at my Fortune 500 company. As far as severance, believe me that the same people at the top who have screwed up the company with bad decisions and have been benefiting through the good and bad times will get their comfy packages NO matter what! While the people on the bottom and in the middle work longer hours and really care about the future of the company, these vampires reap the rewards.
Hey laid off former employee! Here's your piddly severance. Pay your COBRA premium with that!
Single-payer health insurance saves employers millions, guarantees your insurance if you are laid off or out of a job for any reason.
www.healthcareforall.org
I have worked since 1977 or so. I don't think I was employed more than five years by any one company. It seems I don't know anybody in my age group, 47 and under, that has had one job for any longer than that unless they were a teacher or self employed. Eventually, under Reganomics, we all are expendable. The suffering of your neighbor is not as important as saving a few cents and dollars on stuff you don't really need.
Yeah, we have to consume more to create jobs, and the only way we can do that is to keep the price low, and the only way we can do that is to lay off US workers to hire cheaper foreign workers overseas, where we are not regulated or taxed. But because times are tough and people are losing their jobs here, we need to lower the price some more and do away with those pesky regulations like the clean air act (which has reduced early death phenomenally) and minimum wage and improve everyone's life with more shit.
Well if that isn't a snake eating it's own tail.....
Too big to fail is too big.
No free trade without equal societies.
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme fuck you.
How very nice. Humans find new ways to shit on each other every day.
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