Can AT&T be sued for the way they are sending the employees to Accenture. The way AT&T set this deal up, is if you don’t take the Accenture offer, you loose your prorated bonus, severance package and receiving unemployment. This, you have to take the offer. It seems like they are moving cattle in a direction they need to. Is what AT&T doing here legal?
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IBM only offered a one year contract to the outsourced folks....not two years
OP
"Can AT&T be sued for the way they are sending the employees to Accenture".
The short answer is no they cannot. You're an employee at will, which means they could also just simply terminate you. It sux, but that's the way it is.
"If you don’t reach rule 75, the pension that you have is gone even if you have several years to rule 75".
Please don't post when you are completely ignorant. If you're vested, that's your money, they cannot take it away. People have enough to worry about without getting completely erroneous information such as this.
the Rebadging practice is nothing new, In my experience I saw many Business Solutions teams outsourced to IBM in addition the pretense of re-orgs. hundreds of 50+ accomplished professionals were cut, and replaced with newbies and indians alltogether starting in 2015.
Not sure why people are panicking. same sh– different day.
This practice (outsourcing) is prevalent in most companies with a large IT departments (and even in areas of financing, banking,etc). I've yet to hear of ONE lawsuit where employees rebadged to another company prevailed. It's not illegal. The only way to fix this is to 1) change the law, or 2) make it so financially detrimental (fees/taxes), that monetarily it's not worth doing for the company. I feel for the outsourced AT&T employees. I was an outsourced Vz employee but because Vz screwed up and did our rebadging at the same time they offered an early out program to other employees, many of us older folks fought back and were able to leave with the enhanced separation. If not for that, we'd have been in the same boat - take the rebadge or you're terminated. Keep your chin up guys. It may be a blessing in disguise that you will see in time.
" everything AT&T does is legal "
If this statement was true, there wouldn't be so many lawsuits AT&T has lost in the past decade or so for doing shady sh*t.
This may be grasping at straws, but what if everyone contacted their US Representative about all of the outsourcing/"rebadging" going on?
I get that the company has the power to hire and fire, but HOW can they say, "you work for (insert company name) now" if they haven't somehow merged with that company? What's next, pawning everyone off to flip burgers at McDonald's?
(And WHY isn't the union all over this?)
It might not do any good to reach out to our elected officials, but with election season right around the corner, maybe someone will care enough to do something about it, or if nothing else, maybe it'll shed some light on this rotten practice!
Just keep paying taxes until the day you die.. the American dream
If people have sued for outsourcing & were successful, we’d have heard about it. How many successful lawsuits have been won against T??
Contractors going to Tech M had their salary cut 10% & the jobs will be off shored after knowledge transfer in a few months. All were told start looking for employment elsewhere. Isn’t Corporate America great?
This is America, anyone can be sued for any reason.
Prevailing is another story.
"If you don’t reach rule 75, the pension that you have is gone even if you have several years to rule 75."
Absolutely not, STFU.
If you have a pension in netbenefits and quit/get laid off tomorrow, that money is yours to take with you or leave in the pension system.
Anyone who says otherwise is either stupid or trolling or both.
I know people who have been laid off - every single one of them had the option of moving the money or leaving it.
it will never stop, The garage sale that Randall just had with Puero Rico and the US Virgen Islands impacted 1,300 current AT&T employees, and 2,600 contractors.
Their new employer will pay close half their salaries when the deal completes, sooo sad
If it weren't legal, Randall would have to take full responsibility and fire Jim Cicconi again. Since Jim C Is back, you might have a case.
If you don’t reach rule 75, the pension that you have is gone even if you have several years to rule 75.
"you lose out on pension vesting, too."
This is flat-out wrong, I don't know why people keep saying this. If you've been around long enough to have been in the pension program, that money is yours, there's no vesting period.
obligation to provide pension commitments to its
employees generally terminates on the transfer, unless the employee
has a vested right to a pension prior to termination. It is common for comosnirs ti indemnify a worker for the transfer of any pension
liabilities by operation of law
Good luck. I hope someone sues and wins. But AT&T has gotten very good at this and I am sure that they closed loopholes etc. They have an army of legal, HR people, and consultants on their side that do outsourcing for a living. One of the reasons you will see the outsourcing company present a two year deal is that is a statue of limitations to bring on any kind of lawsuit. Also since you are offed a job at the same location typically with the same base pay (but less benefits) their are no damages to sue for or discrimination.
Being a person who was outsourced we did not have a choice. Either you take the job or it is considered you electively quit.
Basically between a rock and a hard place.
Plus we had to start as new employees and lost all our time prior.
If you do not accept the job then simply you are out of work, and not given severance. Of course, you lose out on pension vesting, too.
You have at least four potential legal bases for claims against your employer: (a) violation of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (often called “ERISA”), a federal law that makes it illegal for employers to interfere with employee pensions, (b) breach of contract, for their failure to fulfill promises they have made and you have relied on, (c) fraud, for their apparently intentional misstatement to you about your rights and entitlements, and (d) a legal theory called “joint employer doctrine” in which you could claim a right to benefits from both companies as an employee of both.
Just like a doctor cannot diagnose an illness without first performing all of the necessary medical tests, a lawyer cannot tell you if you definitely have legal claims without first looking into all of the facts, which I can’t do from your short letter. I strongly urge you to consult with an experienced employment lawyer or pension lawyer in your area. You should be able to find one from the Bar Associations in your area. I’m confident they can be found on the internet.
By the way, if you do have a legal claim, so might hundreds of other employees of the company. That would make almost any attorney eager to take on such a case.
If you lose your right to full pension, even though you have earned it, that would be tragic. I strongly urge you to seek a legal consultation.
everything AT&T does is legal. State laws are in a constant state of flux. Before relying on the text of any state Right to Work statute, y For a summary of recent litigation challenging success is pretty low.