payseverance.com

A laid off employee may try to negotiate more salary and benefits than the employer offered in his or her severance package. In doing so, technically, the departing employee has turned down the employer’s offer. This does legally allow the employer to offer no severance pay.

But, assuming you are asking the employee to sign a release of all claims in return for the severance pay, I recommend you either tell the employee that the offer is not negotiable which is recommended if you are laying off other employees, too. Or, you can negotiate, especially in circumstances where there is no written company policy; no past practices exist; and no promises in an employee handbook have been made.