Laid off from Hertz.

What Hertz layoffs have meant for employees

Hertz's bankruptcy capped the severance it asked to pay the people it had already let go. It filed on May 22, 2020, according to its May 2020 8-K. At the first-day hearing, Hertz's lawyers said some of the agreements behind that severance called for more than $13,650, according to the court transcript, but asked for authority to pay terminated workers only up to that priority cap. Their case was that these were priority severance claims and obligations a plan would have to meet, so paying up to the cap changed only the timing. The same request covered furloughed staff, who were getting benefits but no pay and whom Hertz hoped to call back when business returned. The court confirmed the plan itself on June 10, 2021, and Hertz emerged from bankruptcy when it took effect, according to the company's 2021 annual report.

Union status shaped how Hertz's 2020 layoffs reached people. Union and non-union staff got different termination dates in April, according to Hertz's April 2020 8-K, and its letter to Nevada describes a later round there that reached non-union staff only. Representation mattered in 2016 too. By Hertz's account in a fact sheet KTVU carried, the Teamsters local had cut ties with the San Francisco airport shuttlers, leaving no union authorized to bargain for them by the time their work went to a vendor. If you're hourly and work under a union contract, Hertz's lawyers said in 2020 that hourly severance terms were set there, which makes the contract worth reading closely.

Neither downturn arrived as a single cut. From early 2007 into 2009 Hertz announced one reduction after another, began closing off-airport branches and, in 2008, offered a voluntary separation program in its US operations while making involuntary cuts worldwide, its 2008 annual report shows. In 2020 the sequence ran from furloughs to the April terminations to a second round in May, and the notices Hertz filed in mid-June set August 17 end dates about two months out. In both downturns a first round wasn't the last one, so if a furlough or a voluntary separation offer reaches you, that history is worth weighing alongside the offer itself.

Outsourcing is the other thread in Hertz's record, and it has come with a choice. In late 2007 Hertz finalized contracts to outsource real estate facilities management, procurement and IT, the same 2008 annual report shows. In 2016 it moved more IT work to IBM and handed car shuttling at San Francisco's airport to a vendor, and the people affected could apply for the new jobs, according to Computerworld and KTVU. In both 2016 moves, a job with the vendor started with an application. In the IBM move, staff who turned IBM down before a final written offer kept their severance, while those who accepted and then backed out could lose it. If a vendor's offer and a Hertz package arrive together, it's worth knowing which choice keeps the package before saying yes to either.

Each of the 47 filings our WARN tracker matches to Hertz was made under a Hertz name, The Hertz Corporation and its variants or Hertz Transporting, so Hertz is the name to look under. Florida, home to the Estero headquarters its September 2026 8-K lists, has 13 of them, more than any other state in the tracker, and two of those, both dated June 15, 2020, covered jobs in Estero itself. Georgia comes next with four. Our pages on unemployment in Florida, Georgia, California and Oklahoma cover four of the states where Hertz has filed.

A sourced history of Hertz layoffs

• March 2021, restructuring affecting about 900 in Europe

  Hertz started a restructuring in its international rental segment in March 2021, citing COVID-19 and reduced European government support, and it affected about 900 employees that year, according to its 2021 annual report.

• May 2020, Chapter 11 filing and retention bonuses

  Hertz and certain of its US and Canadian subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware on May 22, and its May 2020 8-K disclosed $16.2 million in retention bonuses paid May 19 to about 340 employees at director level and above.

• April 2020, about 10,000 North American job cuts

  On April 14 Hertz committed to cuts affecting about 10,000 people in North America, effective that day for non-union staff and April 21 for union staff, and its April 2020 8-K estimated severance and termination payments at about $28 million.

• November 2016, SFO shuttler work moved to a vendor

  Hertz laid off 156 shuttlers who moved cars near San Francisco's airport and gave the work to a vendor; its statement and fact sheet, published by KTVU, cited three rejected contract settlements and said 90% of 100 applicants got vendor offers at the same pay.

• February 2016, IT work moved to IBM

  Hertz's CIO told IT staff on February 10 that the company was expanding its outsourcing work with IBM; about 300 IT employees, most in Oklahoma City, were affected and IBM was hiring about 75, Computerworld reported.

• January 2009, more than 4,000 jobs worldwide

  As rental demand fell, Hertz announced more than 4,000 job cuts worldwide from late 2008 into early 2009, with an emphasis on non-customer-facing roles; its 2008 annual report counted more than half of those employees as ineligible for severance.

• 2008, off-airport closings and a voluntary separation program

  In the third quarter Hertz began closing 48 US off-airport locations and paired a voluntary separation program with involuntary cuts, with termination costs for about 1,400 employees, then began closing about 200 more late in the year, its 2008 annual report said.

• Early 2007, headquarters, service center and rental cuts

  Hertz announced cuts affecting about 200 employees, mainly at its Park Ridge, New Jersey headquarters and its Oklahoma City service center, and about 1,350 mainly in US car rental, according to its 2008 annual report.

What to do if you're laid off from Hertz

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Hertz's biggest hubs: Florida, Georgia, California, Oklahoma. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Hertz's hub states run: Florida, Georgia, California, Oklahoma, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.