Citigroup to Cut 17,000, Employees Seek Counsel from Career Protection

Citigroup’s announcement that it will lay off thousands has flooded Career Protection’s® offices with thousands of phone calls and website inquiries from employees seeking counsel and negotiation advice about severance pay packages. Career Protection® has helped hundreds of professionals who have been laid off, outsourced, or terminated obtain substantial severance packages.

Los Angeles, CA , April 18, 2007 — Citigroup Inc.’s announcement last week has flooded Career Protection®’s offices with phone calls and thousands of website inquiries from management and employees asking about their severance pay packages. The nation’s largest financial institution sent shock waves through its workforce by stating it will eliminate 17,000 jobs, and shift 9,500 positions to “lower-cost locations”.

Even with good severance offers, senior executives and professionals don’t know what else to ask for or how to negotiate the agreements.

“Hundreds of employees and middle-managers are calling us and asking what they can do about their anticipated severance packages. Many educated executives and professionals believe that severance packages cannot be negotiated,” says Kirk Nemer, president of Career Protection ® and employment negotiations legal advisor to professionals.

“Many professionals have excellent opportunities to negotiate a severance package, but continue to believe that severance pay is a ‘take it or leave it’ situation and make the mistake of signing Separation and Release of Claims agreements with restrictive covenants written by, and for, the company without even thinking about the impact on their future careers,” Nemer states. “Even with good severance offers, senior executives and professionals don’t know what else to ask for or how to negotiate the agreements.”

Career Protection®’s human resource and legal experts offer a unique program to executives and senior professionals so they achieve the best employment agreements and enhanced severance pay packages as they enter or exit a company.

“Career Protection®’s experts showed me how to negotiate with a large company’s human resources department and ask for benefits I would have never thought about obtaining,” Sheila Lofton, former executive of Colgate-Palmolive, says. “They guided me to a successful resolution without legal escalation.”