Companies can't enforce silence for severance pay, Labor Board rules

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Companies can no longer offer severance agreements that prevent employees from making disparaging remarks about their former employer, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday.

"the employer’s offer is itself an attempt to deter employees from exercising their statutory rights, at a time when employees may feel they must give up their rights in order to get the benefits provided in the agreement."

Employees also cannot be prevented from disclosing the terms of their severance packages as outlined in any exit agreement, the NLRB said.The NLRB's decision reverses two made during the Trump administration that found these types of agreements were "not unlawful.

The previous decisions, made in cases involving Baylor University Medical Center and International Game Technology , stated that offering similar severance agreements to employees was not unlawful by itself. "Today’s decision, in contrast, explains that simply offering employees a severance agreement that requires them to broadly give up their rights…[and] that the employer’s offer is itself an attempt to deter employees from exercising their statutory rights, at a time when employees may feel they must give up their rights in order to get the benefits provided in the agreement," the NLRB's ruling said.

, it’s clear the Biden administration is assertively reorienting workplace rules to be more supportive of workers, who have clawed back more power in the post-pandemic era.

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HungLee This is huge

While I agree with this on one one level this takes away a major incentive to offer a severance package at all. Not sure that is the desired outcome.

Not sure how well this plays to employees since they usually involve a financial payout which speaking negatively about the company does not. Many employees would prob prefer the cash.

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