Am I entitled to this money by law?

[lifeiskarma]

What is the name of your state? NY

I was working as a recruiter for about 3 months and was terminated. I was told upon my termination that I am a "very nice girl", hard worker but they need someone "phenomenal" for the position that I was and I do not have what it takes to do the job. I understood and asked if there would be severance of anything. My old boss said, I usually do not do do this but I can give you a week severance which was $641.00. During my time working there I closed a couple of deals and thought at least after I left I would recieve my commision for closing the deals that I did do while STILL employed there. It doesnt come out to that much (maybe around $200) but I still feel like it is money that I earned and should be paid. I emailed my old boss after temination and asked him, he answered me in a email saying, no you will only recieve the 1 weeks severance pay no commision will be paid. Are they allowed to do that? Am I entitled to that money? I can't even look in my employee handbook b/c it was in my drawer and when I terminated he walked me out and didnt allowe me to get anything out of my desk accept personal belongings.

 

[ecmst12]

Well they were not required to give you severance and they did, and this is more then your commission would have been. So I think you made out ok.

 

[diannamichaelso]

What else did you want out of your desk besides your personal belongings???

 

[lifeiskarma]

What else did you want out of your desk besides your personal belongings???

I wanted to take the company handbook, as well as information about health insurance since he fired me a week before I was eligible for benefits.

 

[diannamichaelso]

Company handbooks are property of the company. If you weren't yet eligible for health benefits, what would you need that information for??

 

[lifeiskarma]

Well they were not required to give you severance and they did, and this is more then your commission would have been. So I think you made out ok.

I never really thought of it that way, but you're right.

 

[cbg]

I can tell you everything you need to know about the health benefits.

(dead silence)

That's it. Since you were not eligible for the health benefits when you were fired, COBRA does not apply and the health benefit information is as meaningless to you as that of a company you've never worked for.