Terminated without receiving company promised severance
Question Details:
Company had financial difficulties for several years and there were several "deals" in the works to merge with other company or go into public sector. Since inception of company, all layoffs were given severance (one week for each year of service). In a corporate meeting our CEO promised that any employee not carried over to "new" company would receive their severance package. The last 15 of us were let go with no notice and no severance. There was no written policy on severance, but there was a verbal promise in a meeting and also history of always paying severance. Do I have recourse?
Employment and Labor Law Answers
I am a lawyer in CT and practice in this area of the law. Promises such as this are unenforceable unless consideration was given in exchange for the promise. in this case, there was nothing that the employees did as an extra benefit for the company that they were previously not obligated to do in return for the severance agreement promise. therefore, while it is unfair that the boss would make such a statement, there is no way to enforce it. if the employees did give some consideration in exchange for the promise, then you may have a leg to stand on, but your facts indicate that you did not give any consideration.
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