I feel like yesterdays newspaper.

[fletchfl]

What is the name of your state? Florida

A few weeks ago I was told I would be terminited in two weeks. The company I worked for had been bought out by another company several years ago and they had been terminating people periodically, due to job elimination. These positions were now being done by their corporate office up North. The department I was in had not been affected until the last several months.
There were six people who had the same position. In January of this year, one of my co-workers left early for maternity leave. When she left I was her back up and was required to do both her job and mine. The day she returned in May, I was told my position would be eliminated and they would be letting me go. I had been with this company almost 9 years and in that time I Have always had a perfect record. I thought that the whole department was being eliminated but it was only two of us. The other person had only joined our department several months before. The woman who returned to her position after her maternity leave was kept. She has been with this company less than 4 years. I don't understand if my position was eliminated why she was now doing it. I was told that performance had nothing to do with the selection. I tried several times to get a good reason but was given very vague reasons. I later found out that one of the reasons I was let go instead of the other person was that she had taken the Family Leave Act during her pregnancy and they were required to hold a position for her. If she were let go,they were afraid that she would bring a law suit against them. I was given an exit agreement to sign and was told if I accepted it, I would forfeit my right to seek any legal help. I recieved severance and unused vacation time. I have already rec'd this compensation but I would like to know just how legally binding that agreement was. I am in my mid 50's, and it is very difficult to start over at my age with the same benifits and pay. I also have lupus and the stress of this whole situation has been causing me major flareups. I have absolutely no intention of taking legal action, I am just curious. This is the second time in 20 years that downsizing has affected my life, in my last positon, I had been there for 10 years. Is there nothing that can protect people who have given 100% of their loyalty to these large corporations for many years, only to be put out on the street when they are thru with us? Like I said, I do not intend to seek a lawyer, I would just like a little information on this matter, since this has happened to me twice already and I will be seeking new employment. Thank You

 

[cbg]

You are operating under a fairly common misunderstanding, which is that a job elimination means that the position duties no longer need to be accomplished. Rather, it frequently means that they are unable to support one employee position and that person's duties need to be done by someone else.

While technically if the other person's position would have been eliminated, they can do so regardless of whether she took FMLA or not, it is also quite true that unless the company could have come up with a VERY good reason why her position and no other one should have been eliminated, they very well may have faced either charges of FMLA violation or those of pregnancy discrimination, or both. We do not have enough information to determine if such charges would have held up but I can't blame the company for wanting to avoid even the suggestion.

It is SOP to offer severance only in exchange for a waiver of any lawsuits. And quite frankly, nothing in your post suggests that you had any claim to bring. You would have to show the entire agreement to a local attorney to be certain, but such agreements, if properly executed, are generally binding.

To be honest with you, if this is only the second time in twenty years that this has happened, be grateful. Layoffs are the order of business in today's economy and today's business culture. I am not unsympathetic; I've been laid off through no fault of my own and due solely to either financial struggles or corporate reorganization, a total of five times in 20 years, three of them since 1998. But nothing in your post suggests that your layoff was illegal; they have no legal obligation to use seniority as the sole criteria.