Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Not sure about the Older Workers Benefits Protections Act (OWBPA) requirements, but Google is free.

I can say, from experience at Cisco, that you are repeatedly advised NOT to sign your severance package early, and that you are supposed to sign it ON YOUR LAST DAY. Your last day is 30+ days from your notification date to allow for you to seek legal review. In my case, Cisco had given managers 3 days to notify employees (Tue thru Thurs) and our "notification date" was listed on the documentation as that Fri and we were still considered employees for 30 days from that Fri, plus received an additional 30 days pay in lieu of notice to equal 60 days notice. In my case, since I was notified on Tue morning, I had 3 extra days of notice/pay.

IF you sign it early, your employment ends immediately and you forfeit the number of days between your scheduled termination date and the date you signed it, so don't give Cisco money back.

Also, if you're over 40, they have to give you an attachment in your package that lists the non-PII info of everyone being impacted. I thought it was supposed to be for the whole company, but what I received was just for my Business Unit (BU) and it listed the numbers of people by age, pay grade, and job title, so you could see how things spread out. Cisco's lawyers look at those #'s and make HR make adjustments before they're printed and some sacrificial younger people are let go to not skew the numbers too far towards older people. You can take it to a lawyer, but it's just better to take the package and run rather than fight it. It's your lawyer against a team of lawyers who've already done what they need to do to protect Cisco from a lawsuit like yours.

Yea, that’s right for single and group layoffs. Once you receive an offer speak to a lawyer first.

If you are looking for more employee rights, you need to move to Europe :-)

You have no rights in the US