1.   A company may have a severance plan that only gives out checks to employees who are fired.

2.   CCB Financial Corp. adopted a severance plan for all employees amid concern that the bank may be taken over.

3.   Educational assistance seems to be more popular now, said Hollett, who recommends it when he is hired to design a severance plan.

4.   Great Western last week adopted a severance plan to provide for employees who were fired as result of a takeover.

5.   In part, that is because First Interstate had adopted an unusually generous severance plan as a takeover defense.

6.   Peter Magnani, a BofA spokesman, said the severance plan should encourage executives to consider merger proposals objectively.

7.   Riddlebarger said the severance plan is comparable to those of other health providers.

8.   Workers at the factory on the outskirts of Brussels rejected an earlier severance compensation plan as too meager.