2 1/2 year retirement notice?

T

I have a 63 year old office manager who last year put in a year's retirement notice. At that point we started training a younger lady for the office manager position. At the time of the notice the older manager was not aware that medicare would not cover her until she was 65. Anyway, the older manager extended her retirement leave for another 1 1/2 years to allow her to keep her medical insurance until Medicare would cover her. So, the new manager is trained and doing very well and the older manager, well she just kind of sits around trying to make herself look busy. Can I force the older manager to take retirement now, can I terminate her or what? I am prepared to offer her a nice severance package which could pay her cobra benefits for the next 18 months.
Thanks for your help.

SDDCHR

You say that you're "prepared" to offer her a severence package to cover her COBRA...have you actually discussed this with her yet? It may be the answer to your dilemma if that is indeed the case that she doesn't want to retire now only because of benefits. On the other hand, if you have accepted her resignation you could hold her to that date. However, I'm sure she has been a long term employee and the best solution to this would be to discuss the severence package.

T

I am hoping she will love the proposal, however am I obligated to hold myself to the extra 1 1/2 years extension on the retirement? Bottom line is I don't want her here any longer. I am afraid that she will try to make a big deal out of this, even though her reason for extending the retirement was for medical insurance purposes or so she said???

Theresa Gegen TX

If you accepted her retirement and let her know it, and then took business actions in good faith based on that, I do not see that you are obligated to let her change her retirment date (unless she has some type of contractual agreement or if she is a governement employee with some type of legal claim on her job).

But, if you let her go and keep the younger employee, she could raise a claim of age discrimination. I do not think it would be a good claim, but the EEOC or a jury might. You need to discuss the facts closely with an attorney before terminating her.

Good Luck

SDDCHR

Good advise on the discrimination point Theresa. Make sure everything is documented. Did she resign in writing or verbally? As you mentioned, it sounds like you're doing whatever you can for her! But again, as I stated earlier, if she resigned and you accepted then you are not obligated to keep her on once you have reached that resignation date. Type in "resignation" in the HR Seach...there are a lot of interesting posts on this topic that may help you!

Rockie

If you got her resignation in writing, you are on fairly safe ground. You accepted the resignation in good faith...and went about securing a replacement...the employee changed her mind, but that does not obligate you to accept the fact that she now wants to rescind the resignation. I would talk with her about this and offer the severance package. If retirement is truly her goal, she will jump at the offer. You made a sound business decision based on her intent to retire. I see no valid claim of discrimination here.

Eliant

I would search in the forum for similar situations. I ask the same question, did she resign in writing or verbal? I would sit with her and explain the situation she has created, get her involved, offer her the severance deal and see what she says. Suggestion: When ever I have an employee that shares with us their desire to retire I always go over all the details, I have a brochure from the Social Security that provides all the details of retirement. for the future I highly recomend this.

As for your employee, if she does not accept the severance package I would either contact your company attorney or make use of her by assigning her real work and not just busy work.

LindaS

If she gave you her retirement notice in writing, it was her responsibilityto ensure she had all the correct information PRIOR to making any final decisions. If you don't feel there is anything productive she can do at this point, because of her replacement, sit down with her and explain the situation. Present her with the severance package, making sure you have the necessary legal documents regarding possible legal issues, and if she chooses NOT to take the package, you then have a decision to make regarding whether or not to allow her to continue working.

This is a tough situation but you probably cannot allow someone to come in and do "busy" work all day either.