US employee who was lays off. Challenging severance offer in courts. Anyone been successful?
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And you are an amateur at this game which it is. The only people who win if you proceed are the legal people. Unless you are in a protected worker class you lose by default and you can be assured the company legal team has set bulletproof template of who goes and who stays. Go for it get a scarlet letter on your forehead in the industry you will never work again. Maybe that is your goal. First layoff it appears there will be more get used to it take whatever you get and walk
Move on and take it as a lesson learned to never trust a company. It is never about the employees and the sooner you accept that the better off you will be. I would not give a dime to a lawyer just to have them take a good portion of any settlement you might get, or get at all. There are workers all over this country who get laid off and fired that see two weeks of pay or nothing. A company like Conoco with their resources will bleed you dry. Now if you want to spend thousands and have it then go for it.
If you are fired you can pay an attorney somewhere to the tune of $500 for 5 minutes of their day to send a template they already have stating that you won’t defame or libel the employer’s image publicly in exchange for X amount of weeks of severance. Usually they will settle instead of having to litigate at all.
I’ve never heard of anyone negotiating a larger layoff severance when they were already going to get something though. Good luck
They did you a favor. Move on.
ConocoPhillips is still firmly in the grasp and fear of DEI… if you have any “protected” status at all… female, color, age, LGBTQ… the company will settle quickly. Have an attorney send in a letter explaining the offense. If you are a white male, give up, they will fight to the death.
Actual advice? There is little legal recourse for at-will employees in the United States in this circumstance. The Fair Labor Standards Act states there is no requirement for employers to pay severance at all. Unless you have a provable legal claim such as discrimination or retaliation, you’re much better off signing the release and leaving COP in the rear view mirror vs getting bogged down in legal fees chasing severance money you may never see.
Keep in mind the company is vindictive and has huge resources to fight you. That said, the leadership is horrific and actually stupid behind the scenes. Your best bet is to find an attorney, give them $20,000, and simply start a “discovery” process. If you are aware of executive conversations that you can point to you may hit the jackpot. The executives have a lot of internal conversations to hide and may settle rather than submit to “discovery”.