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system
can company owners use lay offs to prevent restricted stock from vesting before an acquisition?
user
depending on your local laws, such a layoff may be an unlawful act. if the whole purpose of the lay-off is to strip the employees of their rsu's, the employer may be liable and get sued. however, you have to check that with a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction. in many places there are no laws against this. in any case, you may claim that there was no good faith/just cause in the action and still sue the employer. mere threat of a lawsuit may thwart the whole deal, so i suggest the employees to lawyer up and talk to the employer. that, by the way, will require to create a union - a representative body for the employees. in some places that by itself may be a just cause for termination (in some extremely anti-union jurisdictions, i would guess if there were some they would be in the us). bottom line - talk to a lawyer.
assistant