Q: I was not paid a severance after my patient died. The family decided not to even though my patient did. Is that legal?
I worked for a family for about 3 years. My job was to take care of their 97 year old mother. They did not pay legally until a month or so before their mother died. The mother told them to make sure they paied us a severance after she died. Well when she did die they didn't give us anything because a pot had been damaged from a leaky faucet. That's out of me and my coworkers control. Are they legally able to do that?
A: It's unclear what you mean by "... They did not pay legally …". Did you work for the mother or for her children? In any case, severance pay is normally a voluntary payment unless it's required by a written employment contract. So they would not be obligated to pay it.
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