Something new has been added to the requirements for severance pay in a RIF:
"Severance Program payments will not be made if the employee does not sign a
mutual waiver and release of claims in a form provided by LLNS."
Given the lawsuits that are now in court, it would seem that LLNS has learned a
lesson. Give those that are let go a severance package in exchange for the
promise not to make claims. It would be interesting to see what the wording of
the release form contains, but that is probably company proprietary information.
Comments
Agreed. One months pay for every year of service and I'll bet 50% of LLNL will be gone by next Friday.
That's chump change and no one is going to take it. I agree with one month’s pay for every year of service and let’s get the labs thinned down to 50% of what they are now and get some serious budget cut going. If that's not enough offer the same incentive in 2014 and 2015.
I'm sure this has to do with the recently-won lawsuit by a RIF'd employee. But, in the worst case, this could be used to avoid severance pay entirely; just make the waiver so onerous that nobody would sign it.
I think LLNS is making a big mistake by not specifying what will have to be waived. I'm not even sure it's legal.
By the way, a VRIP (V=Voluntary)waiver is an entirely different animal. If you don't like the waiver, you don't take the VRIP.
Here, let me hang a piece of tasty cheese over your head. Dance for it, monkey.
Therefore, sliding a piece of paper in front of the poor guy that says you can't sue the labs for any reasons if you wish to receive the severance you earned during your many years of loyal service at the NNSA labs is a very sleazy tactic.
It's absolutely "Bechtel-ian", isn't it?
1. This is NOT for a VOLUNTARY separation plan. It is for RIFs. You will be required to sign this just to get severance pay that has been in the policy of the lab for a very long time.
2. You CAN'T read it. LLNS will not provide it to you, or even tell you what it contains. They will provide it to you only if you are impacted by a RIF.
LLNS is probably doing it to deter people from trying to sue after they have been fired. I understand why they might want to do that.
What I don't understand is why they don't just make the waiver a part of the policy, so everybody can know what the rules are. It leaves LLNS open to all sorts of (usually negative) speculation.