I gotta legal question about employment

[bleedingheart]

My husband's company laid him off two days ago but today he found out that they are referring clients to him and two other laid off employees and they are using some sort of made up company name...

Apparently they told their customers that my husband and these other people had left to form their own company and that company was on their approved vendor list...My husband was laid off...he didn't quit!..

Now my husband and the other laid off workers are completely taken aback and have no clue what this is about... but they were all promised severence and he doesn't want to mess that up... and he has no clue how to handle this news...

We have a family to feed and care for and we definitely don't need to mess up his unemployment status or anything of that nature with some sort of nonsense that may not result in much profit...

We plan to talk to my father-in-law and my bro-in-law who are both attorneys and even the unemployment office but this is really oddball...

[beyurslf]

1. Sounds like the company

wants them to take that side work so they don't have to pay the unemployment/severance. I would be very suspicious.

good luck!

[bleedingheart]

4. I agree I think they want to get out of paying unemployment

but the severance I am not sure about..

but the severance payout may be tied to my husband and these other people going along with the lie until they have completed their damage control..

the sad fact is that my husband was very well liked by their customer base and already the customers are calling and he is tongue tied as to what to say...

[demnan]

2. Get to the bottom of it

No one should tell lies like this. Contact the personnel office of the company right away and make them aware of it. I might be some misunderstanding or miscommunication within the office (as often happens when there are layoffs).

I suspect the former company would appreciate knowing that someone was referring clients to a non-existent company.

[bleedingheart]

3. these are the head honcho's doing this...this company is

small....so there is no offical HR dept..the people who laid off my hubby and the other people in the office is the HR/CEO dept...

[SoCalDem]

5. He's entitled to unemployment if he was laid off..

They may be trying to insinuate that he "left on his own to form a business", so that he cannot collect unemployment.. Sounds sinister to me.. Or maybe they do not want their remaining customers to sense "blood in the water"..layoffs..

He definitaely needs to contact the unemployment office.

[bleedingheart]

6. He is going to the unemployment office on friday to sort this all out

and to get some advice.
Lucky for me I have a few friends in state govt who can help us sort out this situation as well.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. I would call a wrongful termination lawyer

It sounds like they are doing two things...trying to get rid of paying benefits and trying to set him up to lose any unemployment benefits.

I don't know the laws of your state but Liberal Texan specializes in this. She hasn't posted lately but I'll bet she still checks her in box.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. This makes no sense at all.

They lay off a group of people and then refer customers to them, telling the customers that the downsizees are a new company. A new company the downsized know nothing about.

OK, something's missing here.

There could simply have been some massive misunderstanding about the whole thing and the company is actually trying to do something decent for them but a lot of signals got crossed.

Or, the company could just be naive about how this sort of thing is done. Or be incomprehensibly stupid.

From what's said here, I wouldn't automatically assume they are trying to screw the people, but some some legal, or business, advice locally would be a good idea.

It appears that they have been turned from employees into contractors, and someone knowledgable about local labor law should be consulted. It may not be such a bad deal after all, but it is unusual that they have no contracts or understandings about just what's going on.

(And now they may have a free hand to steal the customers and actually run that new company.)

[bleedingheart]

12. this company fits the "incomprehensibly stupid"

variation.

If they had planned to make everyone a contractor and to outsource work it would have made more sense to alert everyone to how this would be done. The way they are handling it is really poor if that is the case, luckily my husband is looking for a job instead of playing along with it right now...he is just keeping quiet with regard to those clients.

[LiberalFighter]

9. Was there anything in writing?

About the severance payment?
About being laid off?

Was there any type of signed agreement specifying wages and benefits and terms of employment?

[bleedingheart]

11. nothing in writing at all.

that worries me...wouldn't you get it in writing?

My husband did have an employee contract when he was first hired but that is it...

[cosmicdot]

10. a possible resource link

http://www.workplacefairness.org/default.php

Workplace Fairness is a non-profit organization that provides information, education and assistance to individual workers and their advocates nationwide and promotes public policies that advance employee rights. Our goals are that workers and their advocates are educated about workplace rights and options for resolving workplace problems, and that the policy makers, members of the business community, and the public at large view the fair treatment of workers as both good business practice and sound public policy.

Workplace Fairness works toward these goals by:

making comprehensive information about workers' rights – free of legal jargon – readily available to workers and to advocates and organizations that assist workers;

providing resources to support the work of legal services organizations, community-based organizations, law schools, and private attorneys that provide free legal information and services to low-income workers;

presenting the employee perspective in publications, policy debates, and public discussion.

Workplace Fairness is affiliated with the National Employment Lawyers Association, the country's only professional organization comprised exclusively of lawyers who represent individual employees in cases involving employment discrimination, wrongful termination, employee benefits, and other employment related matters.

Workplace Fairness was founded in 1994 as the National Employee Rights Institute. The name of the organization was changed in 2001 to reflect our effort to link the knowledge and work of employment rights attorneys with that of non-legal organizations and other individuals who are concerned with issues of fairness in the workplace. Working together, professionals and citizens concerned with issues of workplace fairness more effectively build community awareness of workplace issues and promote progressive changes in employment law, policies, and practices.

The National Employee Rights Institute continues today as a division of Workplace Fairness that publishes books and journals on employee rights and workplace issues that relate to employee rights. Click here for more information about National Employee Rights Institute publications.

NERI is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in California.