Laid off wth a ridiculous offer

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? NEW YORK
I've been part of the onsite staff of an employment agency for the past 7 years and was told yesterday that they need to make cutbacks. The onsite staff before the present changes is 15 employees but there is an unsurmountable amount of tempory employees we send to company's all over the New York City. After being told that they decided to do away with "in the office" off shift employees of which I am one, they offered me to cover my existing 47 hours of office coverage plus another 30 hours a week, all from home for a little more than half my existing salary. I can't afford to take such an offer and I'm sure they know this. I'm told I'm an "at will" employee. I have benefits, vacation, sick days etc. I'm the oldest employee at 55. I'd appreciate any advice on the following:
*Am I entitled to any severence?
*Are they allowed to terminate me immediately?
*Is there any chance this is age discrimination?
I have no contract and the last company manuel I've seen is from year 2000.
Thanks in advance for any input.

1. If by entitled you mean, does the law require them to offer severance, the answer is no, it does not.
2. Yes. Nothing in the law requires them to give you advance notice unless WARN applies, and there are very good reasons why a company would NOT give advance notice if it is not required by law.
3. There is not even remotely enough information in your post to judge whether this is age discrimination or not.

age discrimination

NEW YORK
What info would you need about age discrimation?

Were you the only one laid off? If If not, what were the ages of the others who were let go?

Were you working on projects or performing duties that could easily be picked up by others? Did the ones who were kept have higher skills than you? Less skills? Were you making considerably more money than others? Less?

We will not be able to CONCLUSIVELY determine whether you have an age discrimination claim or not, but the questions above will at least give us an idea as to the likelihood.

age discrimination

New York
Thanks for your quick response.
They let a salesperson go around my age about a month ago.
There are 3 off shift people. Nights, M-F, Overnight M-F, and Weekends, me being the Weekend person. They moved the Nights recruiter to a swing shift day position, and if I take this extreme low-ball offer to cover 77 hours from home the 3rd shift person will be terminated. I'm sure it will be offered to her when I turn it down. When that happens I will be the only one let go. Maybe this is their loop hole out of age discrimination since they did officially make me an offer, even though they know I can't possibly survive on such a low salary.
As far as it being an easy job picked up by others, there are client relationships involved that take sometimes years to establish. The more the client can trust your judgement, the more you will be able to service them.
My salary was in the mid-range. There are others with 3-4 less time in the company making more and others making less give 25-40% both ways.

Okay, so HOW OLD is this third shift person?

Oh, she's 28, I'm 55, the night shift guy given the day shift is also 28.

While it's impossible to say for certain on the basis of a couple of one paragraph posts, I think you may have a hard time making a case for age discrimination on the basis of what you've said.

They made YOU an offer. You may think it ridiculous but they made it all the same. They didn't make that offer to the younger people, and if you accept it one of them will get laid off. If they really wanted you out because of your age, I have a hard time believing they'd come up with such a scrambled plot to disguise it; they'd just lay you off.

However, as I've said, it's impossible to judge for certain on the basis of what info I have. If you HONESTLY believe (and are not just looking for a justification) that you are being laid off because of your age, then by all means file a complaint with the EEOC.

I get the impression, though, that you yourself are not really convinced that age discrimination is what's going on here and you're just grasping at straws. If that is the case, I'm going to ask you to remember that a great many people who have legitimate claims are having to wait months or even years because the EEOC offices are backed up with people filing claims "just in case" or just to make trouble for their employers. If you REALLY think it's age discrimination, go for it. If you're just exploring options, keep this in mind.

Thank yoiu CBG

I'm honestly not sure simply because through my 7 years many people have been laid off or fired yet I've been kept on because of my dependability. My only reason for exploring this is I feel they made me the ridiculous offer to cover their butt. They know I can't tie up tie up literally 46% of my life for the money they are offering.
Thanks so much for your input. You've been a tremendous help.

Here's one more point for you to consider:

As far as the law goes, age discrimination begins at 40. If you were hired seven years ago, you were well past 40 at the time. If they had a problem with older people, why would they have hired you in the first place?