From Goldman Sachs to Yahoo: Check out some of most notable severance pays

Infosys paid Rs 17.38 crore to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal when he parted ways

Severance pay has come under the spotlight due to a debate over India’s second largest software exporter, Infosys, paying Rs 17.38 crore to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal when he parted ways. Globally, law firms suggest, there are no guidelines or rule book that define when an employee can be given a severance package. Paying such a package has, however, been a practice in several countries, especially when an employee is told to resign or when layoffs are announced. Such a compensation is often offered to a departing employees who has confidential information about the organisation.
 
A report by Manpower Group states organisations in Europe and Asia-Pacific pay higher severance pay than counterparts in the US. While senior executives in the US who depart involuntarily receive as severance a little more than three weeks’ pay per year, Asian organisations give nearly four weeks per year, the report adds. Ayan Pramanik lists some notable severance packages:

Gary Cohn

Ex-Goldman Sachs president 

$123 mn (Rs 818 crore)              

Left the company to join Trump’s team to lead US National Economic Council; will be given the amount, a combination of stock and cash

Rex Tillerson

Ex-ExxonMobil CEO 

$180 mn (Rs 1,197 crore)              

The amount which Tillerson’s former firm will give him. He joined Trump’s administration as secretary of state

Marissa Mayer

Yahoo! CEO 

$55 mn (Rs 366 crore)              

Yahoo! announced in April last year that it would pay the amount to CEO Marissa Mayer 

if the company is sold

Jeff Smisek

Ex-United Airlines CEO 

$28.6-mn (Rs 190 crore)              

Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Airlines, reportedly stepped down with the severance pay 

in September 2015

Carly Fiorina

Ex-HP CEO 

$21 mn (Rs 140 crore)              

Fiorina, who contested for 2016 US prez election and was the CEO of HP between 1999 and 2005, was reportedly given the amount 

Suresh Vaswani & Girish Paranjpe

Ex-Wipro CEOs 

$1.55 mn (Rs 10 crore)              

The amount which Wipro paid to ex-CEOs when T K Kurien was brought in as CEO 

Francisco D'Souza

Cognizant CEO 

$24 mn (Rs 160 crore)              

The amount which Francisco D'Souza is entitled to get if his employment is terminated without a cause

Vishal Sikka

Infosys CEO 

$10 mn (Rs 66 crore)              

Vishal Sikka’s entitlement for severance

Source: Agencies