No. An employee who qualifies for statutory severance pay (5+ years of service and the employer meets the payroll or mass termination threshold) is not automatically entitled to continued health and dental benefits during the statutory severance pay period.
One important caveat —
If the employee is receiving:
-common law reasonable notice,
-salary continuance under an employment contract, or
-an enhanced severance package,
the employer may agree (or be required) to continue benefits beyond the ESA minimums. That obligation comes from the employment contract, settlement agreement, or common law—not from the ESA’s statutory severance provisions.
So, under the ESA alone, benefits continue through the statutory notice period, but not through the statutory severance pay period.
-HRInsider Staff
