The bottom line is whatever the particular unemployment office decides is what the claimant has to live with.

If a Wisconsin employee is considering a severance offer, they should call their unemployment office and ask, if they were to accept the offered severance payments, whether those payments would delay unemployment benefits until the completion of the severance payments.

Severance agreements can be daunting to employees who are still reeling from being terminated and now face the prospect of a job search in this economy.

I wondered if in Wisconsin, as in other states, laid-off employees who sign a severance or separation agreement waiving rights in exchange for severance pay and other considerations are eligible for unemployment benefits from the date of layoff – and need not wait for their severance payments to expire?

Thanks for your message. You are correct that those are CA law issues I could not assist with.

For a general search for CA employee rights attorneys, there is an employee-rights-attorney search (by State) at http://www.nela.org.

I know of one employee rights blog about CA law, and that is the California Employee Rights Blog (http://www.calemployeerightsblog.com/) authored by Peters Law Group (http://www.peterslawgroup.com/).

I actually used to work with Jim Peters of that firm, and he is a very good attorney and reasonable to work with. Jim has definitely worked with severance agreements. Your wife’s issues may also implicate CA workers compensation laws.

I wish you the best. Thanks for writing.

Mike

Is there a website for severance laws in California?
My wife works from a company uses hazardous chemicals. From time to time she has minor exposure to these chemicals.
My wife was asked to sign a severance agreement that takes away rights if she becomes sick or ill after terminiation. Is this fair?

Peter Quinn