Friday, May 12, 2017

Dear Business Lawyers: Stop Trying To Get Employees To Waive Their Unemployment Benefits

Things you didn't think you had to say but apparently do. In Florida it is still illegal to try to get an employee or former employee to waive their right to apply for unemployment. It's a crime. Yet I've seen a couple of draft releases in proposed severance agreements attempting to do exactly that. And I also recently got a demand email complaining that a client had signed a release and was therefore breaching by filing for unemployment.

Let's be clear. You can't ask an employee to release or waive their right to unemployment in my home state of Florida. Period.

Here's what the statute says if you don't believe me:
443.041 Waiver of rights; fees; privileged communications.—
(1) WAIVER OF RIGHTS VOID.—Any agreement by an individual to waive, release, or commute her or his rights to benefits or any other rights under this chapter is void. Any agreement by an individual in the employ of any person or concern to pay all or any portion of any employer’s contributions, reimbursements, interest, penalties, fines, or fees required under this chapter from the employer, is void. An employer may not directly or indirectly make or require or accept any deduction from wages to finance the employer’s contributions, reimbursements, interest, penalties, fines, or fees required from her or him, or require or accept any waiver of any right under this chapter by any individual in her or his employ. An employer, or an officer or agent of an employer, who violates this subsection commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
After a brief bout of research, it looks like lots of other states also prohibit this practice. I've found laws prohibiting such waivers in New York, Texas, Minnesota, Maryland, California, North Carolina, and Missouri. That's a pretty good sampling of pro-employer and pro-employee states, so I'm guessing your state may prohibit this as well.

For some reason I have to say this about every ten years or so. The management-side employment lawyers know better. It's the employers who handle business/corporate law who decide to dabble in employment law who need to be reminded.

Therefore, I am saying it. Now cut it out and stop torturing people who have lost their jobs.

Rant over.
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2 comments:

  1. Suzanne LucasMay 12, 2017 at 9:06 AM

    When I was doing layoffs we had a clause that said if they applied for unemployment BEFORE we stopped paying severance (everyone received a minimum of 12 weeks severance) then we would deduct the unemployment payments from their severance.

    You can control severance, but not unemployment. Most employees got new jobs before their severance ran out, so it protected the company without harming the employee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Donna BallmanMay 12, 2017 at 10:53 AM

      Here in Florida your unemployment stops temporarily and then restarts at the end of the severance period. You don't lose the total weeks you are eligible but you can't get both at the same time.

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I appreciate your comments and general questions but this isn't the place to ask confidential legal questions. If you need an employee-side employment lawyer, try http://exchange.nela.org/findalawyer to locate one in your state.