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hi this is John Gallagher I'm an employment lawyer I'm in Malvern Pennsylvania it's December 15 2019 and I'm just doing this video to accompany a blog posting I did today relating to what to do if you're subject to a layoff reduction in force or termination and you've received a separation agreement it's really more of a checklist you can check out the article on my blog my blog is employment law 101 dot blog spot.com really if you just google John Gallagher employment lawyer you'll find it as well you could spend three or four minutes reading the article or if you click on the links you could spend an hour this is entitled simply to provide a quick overview of what the article discusses you received a separation agreement in Pennsylvania here's some general things to understand first there's going to be a general release of claims in there there always is what does that mean it means that any claims that you may have against the employer that are not addressed in writing in the separation agreement will be void after you sign the separation agreement so you can't sign the separation agreement and then come back and say you owe me a commission you owe me bonus I want to file a lawsuit against you for wrongful termination etc etc it's done once you sign the separation agreement and you've been fired but you think you're out of commission or a bonus you've been offered severance all right one trick for lack of a better word that employers use is they kind of fold in commissions or bonuses to which you may be entitled into the severance amount and so you need to be aware that employers commonly do this you need to analyze whether you have a right to a commission of bonuses and generally the rule is that if you're not employed when the commission is earned by the company or the revenue resulting in the commission is earned by the revenue or when the bonus is paid out typically the first quarter of any given year that you're not entitled to it it can be negotiated for sure but you need to be aware of that it needs to be addressed in the severance agreement or the separation agreement as they're commonly referred to and you have a non-compete you signed a non-compete when you started now you've been laid off not because you did anything wrong but simply because the company is going in a different direction and in the separation agreement it says you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of the non-compete agreement in Pennsylvania generally non-compete agreements those covenants that you won't work for a competitor they're not enforceable if you've been laid off through no fault of your own you're deemed worthless employee under the law however if you get severance and agree to be bound by that existing non-compete then that covenant set forth in the separation agreement will be much more enforceable for sake of discussion here generally non-competes are kind of frowned upon here's the thing two non solicitations that is an obligation that you not pursue clients with whom you became familiar through your employment they're always enforceable so much could be said on that but you can go to my blog and read more you're worried that the employer will badmouth you or disparage you when you go to look for another job in the separation agreement there's a covenant that says that you won't disparage the employer generally or often there's not a reverse or reciprocal covenant saying it won't disparage you generally employers won't disparage former employees the to word being sued there's a state law that protects you to some degree and companies will negotiate and make these non-disparagement covenants reciprocal but you need to negotiate it and you can't find the whole company so IBM's not going to bind you know X hundred thousand employees who don't even know you to a non-disparagement clause so you generally pick a control group a few people that you're worried about and have them added in it's a tricky kind of negotiation but it can be done can I get unemployment thought I was laid off and offered severance in Pennsylvania that the rule was if it's under twenty thousand dollars no issue if it's over twenty thousand dollars there's a sliding scale where your benefits overdue sylvans twenty one thousand dollars for sake of discussion you won't really notice any reduction in your unemployment benefits if it's a hundred thousand dollar severance you're not going to get any unemployment and then there's a scale and I discussed that in my blog should I resign a lieu of being terminated if I'm offered severance well this is a common tactic that employers use very very common you should understand that generally speaking if you quit your job under those circumstances you're not going to get unemployment and it's not as easy as the employer saying that it won't contest your unemployment because when you file from an appointment in that setting the employer will be asked why is the person no longer employed and the employer will write he or she resigned and that unemployment will likely deny your claim and then you will have the burden of proof at an unemployment referee hearing to prove you add what's known as a necessitous and compelling reason to resign your job and generally being told Loosli you're going to be fired if you don't resign it's a tough case it can be won but not easily let's see I think that fairly well covers this kind of soup to nuts checklist on the things that I find to be most commonly in question where employees are concerned or most difficult for me to negotiate a word on negotiation the severance is often most commonly and not required by companies they don't have to pay severance they do so to get the general release when they don't require but they're not required to pay severance and there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing that would suggest they think that you have a good claim it's a common practice and if you have a contract that promises you severance unless you're fired for saying good cause then that of course would be enforceable and some companies have a obligation to provide severance pursuant to what's known as an ERISA plan dr is a and you would have to look for a summary plan description large companies often will have some replant descriptions that relate to things like medical benefits and the like disability some of those do provide for severance so you've got to look for that and before you call an attorney it probably would be you probably would be well served in taking a look at blog that I've written just seen if the cameras on these things are tricky which is a little more high-tech than my video video graphing skills or whatever you call it I suppose in any event I hope you found this helpful my name is John Gallagher you can call me I do free consultations so spend five ten fifteen minutes with you just analyzing things and will decide from there for anything further is required you can call me at six one zero six four seven five zero two seven you can also email me at j AG at John a Gallagher dot-com and unfairly well all over the internet so you could find me there I hope you found this helpful it is the holiday season so Happy Hanukkah Kwanzaa and Merry Christmas or whatever it is you may celebrate at this time of new beginnings and gratitude for all that we have because if you're watching this video you have a lot and no matter what's going on it will get better all right thank you very much for checking in good day now