Q & A Table of Contents
They Terminated Me To Deprive Me Of My Retirement Benefits
From: Andrew, McDonough, GA
Question: In December I was given a termination notice from my employer. My termination date is April 13, 2001. If I was to continue employment until June 23, 2001 I would have met my 20 year anniversary milestone with the company. I need advice on asking the company to allow me to get my 20 year award and that would give me retirement benefits. Please help.
Response: Unless there are other facts missing from your story, it sounds an awful lot as if your employer has made a conscious decision to save money by depriving you of your retirement benefits. The fact your termination date is 70 days prior to the vesting of the longevity bonus sounds like a 'remarkable coincidence'.
The first series of steps I would take is to check with relevant public agencies to find out whether there are laws covering the situation you describe In addition, if there is a labor union at the company -- whether you are a member or not -- they may have information that can help you.
I wonder if the company has done this before. Could you find former employees and see whether any of them have had a similar experience. If anyone has fought this and won, I would suggest you hire their attorney and follow her/his advice.
Are there any issues that make your situation peculiar? conflict with any of your colleagues, some kind of significant poor performance on your part, issues which relate to such things as race, disability, etc. It certainly sounds as if age discrimination could be a factor in this. Any of these factors should trigger legal mechanisms to help you pursue your rights.
After doing your initial homework, and figuring out what kinds of options you have from the 'outside', you should confer with someone in authority in Human Resources to find out how the company can ameliorate your situation. The attitude with which you undertake this discussion should NOT be that of a victim. If you walk in as a victim, you will most assuredly emerge from the discussion as a victim.
You have a very strong interest in getting this situation modified. Again, unless you're guilty of some corporate sin, I cannot conceive of any reason for you to feel unjustified in pursuing your rights in the most active ways possible. If your termination was timed simply to save the company money, you have an obligation to yourself and your co-workers to take every legal/legitimate step available to assert your rights.
Good luck with this. Let me know what happens.
Steve
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