Legal Question in Business Law in California

My question is as follows: I work for a major corp, my boss informed us that there was talk that our area of 6 persons may have our work transitioned to others within our area but that no final decisions have been made. A few days later we were informed by other team members that they were taking over our work load naming 3 of us. Once we reported this to our supervisor we wer instructed not to complete any more of our work & to get ready to transition our work in case it came down. This has now been 2 weeks of going to work, logging into our computer daily with the inability to complete any work. We have gone to HR to find out if we can get more info as to when it would happen, would we be eligible for a severance package. The questions were rerouted to another director & until this day we have not gotten formal notice. Now we are being told to continue transitioning the work with most of it already completed. Today we had to be on a call to discuss the transition work & got information from the new manager of how hard this is for her team & she did not ask for this extra work, yes not real professional. The new info we are getting is that they cannot give us answers as they are not done with their plan yet. Is there any legal rights to reducing staff as far as notification & the requirement of them for us to be available for 8 hours a day & not be able to complete our work. Yes, as you are thinking, we go to work, log in & sit for 8 hours unless someone has a question about the work.


Asked on 7/07/15, 7:54 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

No. As long as you have a job, and are paid for it, you are expected to show up and do whatever you are assigned to do, even if it is just to sit. You have no right to a severance either. So you may or may not get one. Sounds to me like you have a lot of free time to start looking for a new job. That's a lot better than most people get before they are laid off.

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Answered on 7/07/15, 8:10 pm
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Absent a contract, including a union contract, an employer can let any employee go at any time without obligation......so, it appears you have no legal rights to enforce against this employer, even though the employer's handling of the situation seems clueless and unprofessional.

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Answered on 7/07/15, 8:57 pm


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