I didn't do this, I don't think a person could win, but if someone thought it was their race, age or whatever you can think of, and gets riffed -- yet people are left working and they didn't get cut. just in general thinking they are targeted or whatever.
I thought about it, but I needed that money.
Bill
@dz Yes, just came across my "involuntary separation" papers and there were just as many younger people who were RIFd as there were older people. They have it down to a science.
@dz yes it does. and i noticed that they offset w/ younger workers. so even less (as if there were any) chances of winning. As said earlier, you'd need a class action suit or have
enough people involved (some being paid by tech giants), that you are much better off
just taking the Severance.
@hg In the US there is the concept of a "class action lawsuit", but since most of the dejobbed signed away their rights to sue to get their severance, it's not likely to happen.
@g8 yes in Europe you can do that not like in USA. If you group together and sue, there is a bigger chance of winning.
in USA, due to your laws, it is likely lost time...in Europe is not the case. For example in my case, I work in Spain, in Barcelona, I know I am going to be affected by the ERE, and I have already prepared a demand against the company and the work council with an important law firm in Barcelona (de la tejera). At least I have my right to create problems to these sons of a bi--h.
Fascinating. Thanks for your post.
@dz You are making the assumption that the documentation provided is accurate. I have reasons to believe it is not. That should then negate anything you might have signed vis a vis the severance.
I talked with a partner at a top law firm here in a major city in CA, who has done many “wrongful termination” cases and did win many. [He’s a personal friend so I got his advice for no cost].
He had me get my employment contract from Oracle [I had a paper copy 20 yrs ago, but no idea what happened to that]. Took 2 wks to get O_HR to get me a cpy of my contract.
My friend the Attny believes it is futile. He said we all signed an Arbitration Clause in our employment contracts. The company picks the Arbitration law office. Arbitrators are retired judges and attnys who are sworn to be fair and balanced. However, for improper termination cases, arbitrators make mega-bucks from the giant companies like Oracle and the other high-tech big boys. Hence the reality is that the arbitrators rarely side with the aggrieved RIF victim, when the Employer is a giant company who sends the arbitrators lots of business.
He told me that if one of us RIFees tries arbitration and loses, we do have a right to go and file a lawsuit against Oracle, but it could be very difficult to find an Attny willing to take such a lawsuit on contingency. The cumulative legal costs could be far greater than just taking one’s sev pkg and moving on.
Finally, if a RIFee does decide to go against the odds and file a lawsuit (inspite of signing an arb-clause), my friend advised to pick an attny who has been around the block a few times and won some “Settlements” in improper-termination cases. Such an Attny will know the shortest path to getting a nice Settlement: If the Attny names lots of your former upper mgmt chain in subpoenas for individual depositions and 5 yrs of all their emails, and all the transcripts from Zoom meetings your mgmt. chain participated in [as you may know, whether an Oracle zoom call is recorded or not, 100% of all O-Zoom calls generate transcripts that go to HR] … as soon as the subpoenas come in, the Big Tech company does not want their Dir’s and VP’s emails and transcripts of zoom calls getting leaked to the news, so settle quickly.
Does your termination package have an OWBPA section? There's a reason they include this.
Based on mine (from 9/22):
They RIF enough younger people to offset the older. Oracle has this process down - it's the only thing they are efficient at!
@a4 i really needed the severance. so not an option for me, I was just wondering about others. suing would take forever and I am quite sure the lawyers have that covered.
@ag yup, that was my thought. I got to the point where I hated it and it was effecting my
personality in a bad way.
thank u
No one will sue them, employees are not that much united on this matter
If you are not of title then it’s likely not worth it unless you have absolute proof that you were targetted due to a protected status. Just really shut up sign and look forward to what door will open next! It will be much better
I and my coworkers on my team who were let go are all older, as are some of the other folks in our group. But I do know a young guy who was let go. NO idea if there is any rhyme or reason to it, possibly just people who had been there a long time and the company hoping they can do without or just replace with newer, cheaper labor.
But yeah, if you want your severance, you have to sign a statement saying you weren't going to sue them. I had more need for the severance than any settlement I would have gotten if someone DID sue and win. I was more interested in the severance than any pittance of a payout from a class action lawsuit I would have gotten.