Tamsin Kaplan is an employment lawyer and business litigator at Boston-based law firm Davis Malm. Michelle Cassorla is an employment lawyer at the firm. This article does not constitute legal advice.
From the recent bankruptcy of Steward Health Care, a large hospital system in Massachusetts, to Bristol Myers Squibb’s recent announcement that it would be laying off approximately 2,000 employees, to numerous biotech startups around the country, reductions in force and employee layoffs have become all too common.
Employers should be aware of their rights and obligations in these difficult situations and plan carefully.
Employers generally have broad discretion as to which employees to include in a layoff. Employee selection will likely depend on the circumstances that have led to the need for a reduction in force. For example, a company with a department that is no longer needed could choose to lay off the entire department, while a company looking to reduce the size of its workforce could choose to lay off a certain number of employees across multiple departments.
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While employers have significant discretion in determining which employees to terminate, that discretion is not unfettered. Federal laws prohibit selecting employees based on protected characteristics such as age, disability, race/ethnicity,...
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