You’ve been laid off and the severance agreement is in front of you.

Severance packages have been common practice for a long time.

A company fires you, but in exchange, you get a healthy severance package. All you have to do is sign this tiny little non-disclosure agreement. Seems like a fair trade, right?

The National Labor Relations Board says, not so fast.

On Feb 21, 2023 the organization returned to a long-standing precedent that an employer may not add confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses to severance agreements — at least for non-management employees.

As things change, just to be safe, before employers build a severance package for an employee they should check with counsel to ensure they are within the bounds of the new law.

On the other hand, employees on the wrong end of a layoff or RIF should be aware of the law before they sign anything.

As a recruiter for the past 25+, I’ve met with plenty of job seekers taking their time because they can lean on the severance they received from their last job. Many of those severance terms being conditional upon the employee keeping their proverbial mouth shut. It will be interesting to see how this changes severances down the road.

#severance #warfortalent #management