Firestone denied severance pay benefits to all employees, maintaining that no reduction of force occurred giving rise to a duty to pay such benefits. The former Firestone employees requested Firestone to provide severance pay in light of their termination of employment with the company. The following Monday the employees reported to work as usual, but were now producing Bridgestone products as Bridgestone employees. On Friday, January 10, 1983, Firestone sold its Lavergne facility to Bridgestone.
#Bridgestone firestone employee handbook manual#
Personnel Manual at Section 2.11.0(K) (revised November 1, 1982). payment or benefits or, if eligible, employee may retire. An employee whose job is eliminated and who refuses an offer (not involving a geographical relocation) of a position having at least the same grade level and paying at least the same salary will be considered terminated as a resignation with no R.I.F. In contrast to the one paragraph description of severance pay rights contained in the employee handbook, the personnel manual contains approximately thirty pages of detailed information concerning the administration of the severance pay benefit plan.Īt some point prior to the divesture of the Lavergne facility, but after specific requests for information by Firestone employees as to their right to severance pay in the event of Firestone's divesture of the Lavergne facility, Firestone amended the confidential personnel manual to provide: Job-offer Refusal. The Manual was maintained as a confidential document and was not distributed to employees. The second source of information on the severance pay plan is contained in the Firestone Salaried Personnel Manual. Termination on account of a reduction in force is calculated at the rate of two weeks of pay per year of service with the corporation. Firestone denies a reduction in work force has occurred. The plaintiffs assert that *412 Firestone's sale of the facility to Bridgestone and their "transfer" of employment to Bridgestone constituted a "reduction in work force" thereby giving rise to a duty upon Firestone to pay severance benefits.
No other details as to rights or the operation of the severance pay plan are provided in the handbook. The amount of termination pay is based on your credited company service and specific reasons for your release. If you are released from the company because you become unable to perform your job or because of a reduction in work force and you have not yet qualified for early retirement, you will be given termination pay.
On page H-3, the handbook provides: Termination pay. The first document is the Salaried Employees Handbook, which was distributed to all employees. The details of the plan are contained in two documents. Firestone maintained a non-funded non-contributory severance pay benefit plan for its employees. The Court grants the motion for summary judgment of defendant Firestone and defines the rights and obligations of the parties.Īt the time of divestiture, the plaintiffs were nonunion, salaried employees of Firestone. A hearing was held by the Court on Wednesday, April 10, 1985. Pending before the Court are cross motions for partial summary judgment on the severance pay issue. Upon divestiture Firestone refused to pay such benefits, asserting that no contingency had occurred resulting in maturation of severance pay rights. During its operation of the Lavergne facility, Firestone maintained a severance pay plan for the benefit of its employees. Prior to the sale, all the plaintiffs were employees of Firestone and, upon consummation of the divestiture, became employees of Bridgestone without losing a day of pay. In 1982, Firestone sold its Lavergne facility as an ongoing operation to the Bridgestone Tire Company.
The focus of this memorandum is limited solely to the issue of severance pay benefits. (1982), for the recovery of certain pension and severance pay benefits that allegedly were lost upon Firestone's sale of its Lavergne tire facility in 1982. § 1331, asserting claims under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, 29 U.S.C. The case is brought by former nonunion, salaried employees of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company pursuant to federal question jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. This Court must decide whether employees who have not lost a day of pay or any significant deviation in their job responsibilities are entitled to severence pay benefits when their former employer sells the employee's place of employment to a successor corporation who immediately steps in and continues plant operations without an interruption in production. United States District Court, M.D Tennessee, Nashville Division.