美国国家公共电台 NPR--Laid off on leave: Yes, it's legal and it's hitting some workers hard

Laid off on leave: Yes, it's legal and it's hitting some workers hard

Transcript¹

Cat Fan was in bed last November, recovering from major abdominal² surgery, when her phone started blowing up.

Facebook's parent company, Meta, had just announced a first round of layoffs⁴: 11,000 employees, about 13% of the company, would lose their jobs.

Fan, a mother of three, had been a recruiting manager for Meta for almost five years.

But in the midst of a medical leave, she suddenly found herself without a job. Her layoff³ notification came while she was still on pain medications, in and out of sleep.

"By the time I woke up and checked my laptop, [I] was already fully⁵ locked out," she says.

Yes, it is legal to lay off an employee who's on leave

With the recent wave of layoffs in tech, media and elsewhere, stories of people laid off while on medical or parental⁶ leave are proliferating⁷.

"I was washing baby bottles while humming a damn Wiggles song stuck in my head ... when I got the news," McKenzie Gregory, an internal communications specialist at Salesforce, recently posted on LinkedIn. "I thought I was protected being on maternity⁸ leave ... and obviously I was wrong."

Indeed, there is nothing illegal about laying off an employee in the middle of a leave "provided there's sufficient documentation that there's a legitimate⁹, non-retaliatory reason that's based on the business," says Arianna Mouré, a labor¹⁰ and employment attorney with Scarinci Hollenbeck.

In other words, companies cannot use an employee's medical or parental leave as the reason to lay that person off.

"They have to be treated just the same, as if they were working as usual," says Mouré.

Still, some employers do wait until the end of someone's leave to implement¹¹ a layoff. In some cases, they want to give that person extra time to get back on their feet. Other times, it's to avoid any chance of a costly¹² legal fight.

Even though a company may have a legitimate business reason for laying someone off, there's still a risk that an employee could bring a discrimination claim, Mouré says.

Tech companies are giving generous severance¹³ to ease the sting

Google recently came under fire after CNBC published a story with the headline "Google nixes paying out remainder of maternity and medical leave for laid-off employees." A group of more than 100 laid-off staffers had called on Google to honor the paid leave it had already approved, CNBC reported.

The story generated comments ranging from "Google, do better!" to "What happened to the human factor?" to "Profits over people!"

In a statement, Google pointed¹⁴ to the generous separation package it's giving all laid-off employees, which includes Google stock and full salary during a 60+ day notice period, as well as a separate severance payment of at least 16 weeks of pay.

At Meta, which announced a second round of layoffs in March, Fan says a huge WhatsApp group has formed around the issue, with some affected¹⁵ employees trying to figure out if they can negotiate a different end date and others simply looking for support.

So far, Fan hasn't heard of anyone getting any extra time because they're on leave. The separation package Meta has offered is also very generous, she says, and includes six months of health care coverage¹⁶.

"Which is amazing and very helpful," Fan says.

After all, employers in the U.S. are not required to provide severance, and many laid-off workers end up with nothing.

"Dumped and then ghosted"

Still, even with a financial cushion, Fan says the last few months have been stressful. After her surgery, she was bed-bound for many weeks, getting up only to shower or go to the doctor. But instead of focusing on her recovery, she was dealing¹⁷ with headaches like getting her cellphone number back.

Moreover, she was worried about who else on her team had lost their jobs. Her access to the internal chat system was gone.

"It just felt like you were dumped and then ghosted very quickly," Fan says.

She's knows she's fortunate she doesn't have to jump into full-time¹⁸ work right away. She still has health care coverage until July, and she's taken on a small amount of contract work as she rebuilds her endurance.

Given the mass layoffs across the tech sector¹⁹, she's worried about finding a new job. She's been a recruiter in tech for almost a decade. But who needs a recruiter while hiring is on hold?

Advice for newly laid-off parents

For the many new parents who find themselves newly laid off, Karla Leon has a few words of advice.

In 2020, Leon was in the middle of a four-month paid maternity leave from her job as an accounts manager with Booking.com when the pandemic shut down most of the travel industry, and along with it her job.

The joy her newborn daughter brought her was suddenly mixed with fear about not having a job to return to.

"Try to enjoy your baby the most that you can," she says.

Jobs will come and go, she says, but the baby moments are fleeting²⁰.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 abdominal   

adj.腹（部）的，下腹的；n.腹肌

参考例句：

• The abdominal aorta is normally smaller than the thoracic aorta.腹主动脉一般比胸主动脉小。
• Abdominal tissues sometimes adhere after an operation.手术之后腹部有时会出现粘连。

3 layoff   

n.临时解雇，操作停止，活动停止期间，失业期

参考例句：

• Finally, prepare an explanation about what led to your layoff.最后，要准备好一套说辞来解释你被解雇的原因。
• Workers were re-employed after the layoff.在暂时解雇不久后工人们又被再度雇用了。

4 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

7 proliferating   

激增( proliferate的现在分词 )； （迅速）繁殖； 增生； 扩散

参考例句：

• Computerized data bases are proliferating fast. 计算机化的数据库正在激增。
• Crown galls are cancerous growths composed of disorganized and proliferating plant cells. 冠瘿是无组织的正在不断增殖的植物细胞所组成的癌状物。

8 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

9 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

12 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

13 severance   

n.离职金；切断

参考例句：

• Those laid off received their regular checks,plus vacation and severance pay.那些被裁的人都收到他们应得的薪金，再加上假期和解职的酬金。Kirchofer was terminated,effective immediately--without severance or warning.科奇弗被解雇了，立刻生效--而且没有辞退费或者警告。

14 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

15 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

16 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

17 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

18 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

19 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

20 fleeting   

adj.短暂的，飞逝的

参考例句：

• The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.女孩们只匆匆瞥了一眼司机。
• Knowing the life fleeting,she set herself to enjoy if as best as she could.她知道这种日子转瞬即逝，于是让自已尽情地享受。