Not all employees get a heads up about layoffs

DEAR CARRIE:What are the parameters required before a company can invoke a "reduction-in-force termination," a layoff by any other name? My understanding of that law is that you have to be notified a certain number of days before being laid off. I believe the law also has language requiring insurance coverage after the termination.

- What Guarantees?DEAR WHAT: Unless your company is planning a mass layoff or you are covered by a contract, your company can lay you off at any time and for any reason as long as it doesn't discriminate.

That is known as the at-will doctrine, and New York is an at-will employment state. If the company is planning a mass layoff, then it could be subject to the state version of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification act, or WARN. That statute requires employers to give employees, local governments and unions at least a 90-day warning of a mass layoff, depending on how many workers are involved.

Short of that the company doesn't have to give you a heads-up about terminations.

As for benefits, I'm mystified by what law you might be remembering. Companies don't have to pay benefits, and when employers offer them they can set the terms. So whether they continue to offer the benefits after you are laid off is up to the companies. Once the employers promise benefits they have to deliver them. But whether they offer them or not is generally up to them, unless a contract says otherwise.

DEAR CARRIE:I am a full-time registered nurse at a local hospital that is dealing with budget issues. So when the hospital expects a few patients on a particular day, the nursing supervisor will ask me not to report to work. Still, I have to be available for up to four hours in case the number of patients unexpectedly increases. . . . This means I need to be available until 1 p.m. I am not being compensated for this "on call" time. Is this legal?

- A Bad Call?DEAR BAD CALL:Labor law doesn't require employers to pay employees just for being on call. About the only exception is if a nonexempt employee, generally an hourly worker, is told to wait on the employer's premises or some other specified place while on call. An employer would have to pay the employee for that time.

RNs are generally considered exempt workers because they fall into the professional category and would not have that same on-call right under labor law.DEAR CARRIE:I am a security guard in a local school district. We aren't unionized. We are told that we cannot collect unemployment during the summer months because at the end of the school year, the district gives us a letter saying that it wants us to return the next school year to the same job. And the officials say that because of that letter we are not eligible for unemployment benefits during the summer. Is this true? - Seasonal Benefits?

DEAR SEASONAL: It is true. When, as a school district employee, you have a contract or "reasonable assurance" of returning to your job when the academic year resumes, you aren't eligible to file a claim in the interim, according to the State Labor Department.

On the other hand, if you filed for benefits and were turned down and later had that offer of employment withdrawn, then you may be eligible for retroactive benefits, that department says.

"This is providing you did not work in an instructional, research or principal administrative capacity," the department website says.

For more on the federal professional exemption and pay go to: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17d_professional.htm.

For more on unemployment benefits and school district employees go to: http://www.labor.ny.gov/ui/claimantinfo/beforeyouapplyfaq.shtm#12.