Severance Pay Agreement

I work for an Insurance company in the state of Maine. We have received job eliminations for 3 depts that are being relocated out of state.

We have received a severance package based upon the number of years employed; 2 weeks of pay for each full year employed. The agreement states; any employee that chooses to leave employment, prior to termination date, will not be entitled to receive their severance pay.

The issue is: 1 employee who will receive 2 weeks of severance pay, was approved to leave 1 week prior to the termination date, the manager who approved this, told this employee that this info was to be kept in confidence and not repeated to others in our dept. This Information was leaked to everyone in our dept. I don't believe legally this can be done, if an exception is made to one, it should be made for everyone. The remaining employees, including myself have been told we cannot leave prior to our termination date or we'll lose our severance pay. Is this legal????

The employee who received the exception, has admitted to everyone, including our dept manager and supervisor this was true.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

You most likely cannot be discriminated against in this way. I.e. there should be no preferential treatment. But other than spending money to sue them, what do you hope to gain???In other words, there is a wrong but not worth fighting.

Your statutes covering unfair employment practices have been repealed. But you might want to check http://www.dol.gov