News Microsoft overpays severance

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/02/23/microsoft-overpays-severance/1

Microsoft has sent out a series of letters to employees it has recently laid off, coughing to a mistake which resulted in overpayment of severance money - and demanding it back.

 

I'd like to know how much they've been 'over paid' for their severance. I believe that the statutory minimum is one weeks pay for every year of service, but I'm sure Microsoft aren't that cheap. Or are they?

 

Well surely they have no legal leg to stand on, so the laid off employees would be able to keep it. I know I would as one last "**** you" if they laid me off.

 

In the UK, i thought that there was a law that if it is not obvious to the average lay-person then it is not their responsibility to notice it and therefore they don't have to repay it. Or something like that.
Anyway, I think that this is a really cheap thing of Microsoft to do, fine to say "oops we screwed up" but then let them keep it as a bonus, or maybe to put them in a better light "we have given you more than we needed to to say thanks for all the hard work you put in"

 

severence pay/retirement pay isnt under the same laws as overpayment of pay/salary so the employees arent obliged to pay the money back - i actually worked in this area very recently.

calculations should have been on the original letter-this makes microsoft's case worse

they can ask for the money but the employees are not obliged to repay it. ms has the right to bring them to court (if it wants) but it is very unlikely a judge would side in ms's favour as the employee has no idea what they are suppposed to get in severence (its different with salary/wages as youll know your hourly rate or annual salary and should see an overpayment)

ms will just have to right it off as a bad debt

 

its just good practice on the side of ms's salary section to ask for the money back, just to be proactive

 

Not as though they're strapped for cash is it?!

 

they just have to show they tried to get it back before the finance section will write it off as a bad debt

 

I would not pay anything back to Microsoft, Kiss My Ass Billy Boy!!!

 

Well, that is totally wrong. At least in my family's experience. The tax man has made several mistakes in the time he has been claiming my family's taxes, and all of those times it has fallen on my mother to find the money and pay it back. We are often talking a month to get together £1500, when we are already in debt and overdrawn. We were never sent any calculations (although I agree we should have), and every single person we went to (accountants and lawyers) said that it was tough **** and they just had us by the balls. We had no choice but to fork it over.

I know it's easy to hate on big companies, but let me play Devil's advocate here; You are all saying that MS should suck up and just let them have the money as a bonus, since everyone is facing hard times. Well, the "economic crisis" is not restricted to the customer. We have seen companies go bust all over the world, including my dearest Woolworth's right here in the UK.

Now, it is no doubt cruel to send people extra money before realising you sent too much, but it is Microsoft's money by right, and they should have every right to expect it back as well. They are getting hit just as hard as us, and businesses don't survive by playing the good samaritan and being everybody's friend. And that's even at the best of economic climates.

I think 2 weeks is an atrocious amount of time to expect somoene to get the money together, as this could in a lot of cases be a lot of money which has already been spent. But people can't just play dumb their whole life. At least some of the people who got extra money should realise that they have received (much?) more than they expected.

 

pocession is 9/10ths of the law sorry ms, if it was me I would say bite me!!

 

no, the legislation doesnt allow them to demand severance pay back. its not protected in the same way as your wages. because the average worker isnt goin to know how its calculated. they have the right to take back anything you are over paid in your salary/wages because you should know what hourly rate you get.

they can ask for it back and maybe bring the person to court but they arent legally allowed to demand it or take it back

the tax man is different tho, the tax man has the right to take the money back

the tax issue is a completely different thing, its your responsibility to make sure your paying the right amount of tax. the legislation on what tax you should be paying is available to you so is your responibility. like you have the choice of paye or self assement, u cant just self ases and then say woops i got it wrong hard luck, or woops my accountant fecked up and the same rule applies to PAYE. ur example is probably somethin different but this is the basics of the thinking

 

I wasn't necessarily saying MS was backed by the law, but more along the lines of it is meant to be in their possession. Obviously, me and the law are at odds, because the way I see it is accidents happen, and whoever the money rightfully belongs to has the right to have it back, given that they are not overly forceful about it and give an adequete time frame. This should apply to both the government and business, as it is only fair in my eyes.

 

yeh i understand im just saying what the law says, i work in pension review doin this exact thing

 

That's what you get for working for m$. Usually in such cases employee can just ignore such letter, companies rarely sue - and when they do, they almost never win.

 

If I were to get a severance package, I would make damn sure I knew the expected amount ahead of time. That being said... if I received a check for a larger sum I would assume that the company had decided to be a bit more gracious for the time I spent with the company.

I do not think it right for M$ now to demand this money back. Assuming that these people were laid off and not leaving willingly, then the company already screwed them once. Now the company is screwing them again.

Have a f'n heart Gates and eat the cost.

 

Ballsy... I wonder how many people will actually return it. The only way this seems to be an issue if it was a huge amount given out. If it was merely a meager sum I would tell MS to simply get lost.

One must wonder about the actual sums they are talking about, and I wonder if we'll ever know!

 

the stink is over ms got embarrased when the story hit the net and said the 25 people that got 4 or5
thousand more than they should can keep it.