Severance Pay

RHH

We have a terminated employee who we agreed to pay severance pay to. There is not a written severance agreement but there is an e-mail outlining the severance payment. Over the past couple of days, it has been determined that this employee turned in fraudulent expense reports and we now want to hold his severance pay pending the outcome of a review of his expense reports - can we hold his severance pay? And if it is determined that there is an issue with the expense reports, can we not pay the severance pay? Thanks.

sonny

[QUOTE=RHH;718199]We have a terminated employee who we agreed to pay severance pay to. There is not a written severance agreement but there is an e-mail outlining the severance payment. Over the past couple of days, it has been determined that this employee turned in fraudulent expense reports and we now want to hold his severance pay pending the outcome of a review of his expense reports - can we hold his severance pay? And if it is determined that there is an issue with the expense reports, can we not pay the severance pay? Thanks.[/QUOTE]


I was hoping one of the attorneys would jump in here, but here are my thoughts. .
Any time we give severance, it is writing and the employee must sign a general release.

davids

It appears that your question is: Is the verbal agreement binding? They can be; but it is a fact-specific inquiry. You really need to consult an attorney to review the specific details of your agreement and the context of how it came about.

We always put severance agreements in writing as part of a general waiver of claims. If we are providing an employee with severance pay, the employee must agree to waive any claims, known or unknown, that he/she may have against us.