> employees will get normal pay and medical benefits until January 31, 2023 and are “expected to work” through that period.
So severance but they have to keep working too? Seems rough. Hard to imagine anyone in that situation would focus on working for their soon-to-be former employer.
In europe it's normal to keep working after employer-side contract terminations.
In Denmark, depending on how long you've been with the company your employers contract termination notice period can be anywhere between 1 month (after 5 months with the company) to 6 months (after more than 8 years and 6 months with the company).
Also, most commonly, if the employee is the one terminating the contract, the notice period is 1 month (although it can be negotiated higher for key employees).
It is understood that your motivation will plummet when you're terminated, but you're still expected to maintain your responsibilites, and eventually, hand over your obligations. But you're also allowed to go to interviews during and if you get a new job your own 1 month termination warning will count.
I've experienced that some employers will offer garden leave to the affected employees, as in they don't have to work or show up daily, but they will hand over responsibilites immediately and be available if there's any questions.
There are a few edge cases where folks will be working through that period and contract with us afterwards in different/new roles, but impacted employees are not expected to work with us during that period.
Immigration status dodge? Say you "expect them to work", but don't enforce it, so they aren't technically unemployed and the H1B clock doesn't start ticking right away?
Maybe trying to game unemployment insurance rates? If someone is employed they can't go on unemployment, hopefully in two months some of them find something new driving down your costs compared to firing them and having them apply right away?
It's a pipe dream if they think anyone laid off will be putting any effort in.
The WARN act requires 60 days of notification before a mass layoff. So the company can choose to either notify employees 60 days before layoff or pay 60 days of severance pay and layoff immediately.
That's actually very common in a lot of countries. I think the US is the outlier in the expectation that notice and stopping of work are concurrent. Same with quitting a job. In Germany it's normal to give 3 months notice before quitting.
So severance but they have to keep working too? Seems rough. Hard to imagine anyone in that situation would focus on working for their soon-to-be former employer.