I am inclined to accept the severance package, but I do not know what, if anything, my rights are worth that I will be giving up. An employer has no obligation to provide severance pay. The only benefit that employers must by law provide is unemployment compensation. If an employer creates a severance plan, the employees covered by the terms of the plan are entitled to the benefits that the plan provides upon the occurrence of the event that triggers benefits. However, an employer may create, modify or abolish a severance plan as it sees fit.
Most employers choose to have no severance plan at all.
If your employer has a severance plan, you are entitled to a written summary description of it. The plan description will tell you what, if anything, you are entitled to receive. My company has always paid severance, but now they say they do not have a severance plan. Unless it is written, it may be difficult, though possible, to prove that your employer established a severance pay plan by providing severance to employees that it has terminated in the past. Unless the employer has been consistent in the past, this may be difficult to show.