Severance in california

Unless there is some policy / practice or employee benefit plan regarding severance, your employer is under no obligation to provide you with severance.  However, if the employer promised you severance and you provided something in return or relied on that promise to your detriment, you may have a contract theory against the employer.  For instance, if the employer promised you a month of severance and you relied on that promise to make a payment, the failure of the employer to deliver on that promise might form the basis of liability against it.  Of course, proving that the employer made such a promise would be difficult.  If the employer had a practice or policy of offering severance and somehow decided you were not entitled to it, especially if the employer did so on grounds of a protected classificaiton such as race, that might be theoretically grounds to hold the employer liable.  Again, though, this is not easy to prove as you must estabish the practice / policy and then argue you were entitled to it but were wrongfully denied it.