Roberta Hayashi, Berliner Cohen partner, was quoted in the May 6, 2011 issue of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s article “…Potential Legal Ramifications of Cisco Systems’ Early Retirement Buyout.” The article discussed Cisco’s decision to offer early retirement buyouts to older employees, which has raised some “interesting” legal questions.
“Buyout offers in general are not rare and might typically include extended medical benefits, wages or perks such as job training and child day-care,” said Roberta S. Hayashi, chair of the employment law practice group at San Jose-based law firm Berliner Cohen…Hayashi also noted that Congress in 1990 passed the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, which revised an existing age discrimination law…According to Hayashi, Congress approved the act because there were cases in which employees were told they had to immediately decide whether to accept an early retirement buyout. “It was kind of a litany of horror stories,” she said.