Megan K. Mechak
Mon, 08/07/2023
A former dockworker filed a class action lawsuit against Yellow Corp., after the company laid him and approximately 30,000 other workers off without advanced notice starting on July 28, 2023. Before it shut down operations on July 30, Yellow Corp. was the third-largest less than truckload (“LTL”) provider in the United States.
The lawsuit alleges that Yellow Corp. violated the federal Worder Adjustment and Retraining Notification (“WARN”) Act, as well as similar but stricter last that apply to workers in New Jersey and California. The federal WARN Act requires employers with one hundred or more employees to provide sixty days’ written notice of a plant closing or the mass layoff of more than 50 workers, which includes circumstances where an employee will be furloughed for more than six months. There are notable exceptions to the WARN Act, however, including natural disasters (where no notice is required) and “unforeseeable business circumstances” (where only as much notice “as is practicable” is required). The lawsuit claims that Yellow did not give the workers the notice required under the WARN Act, and is seeking unpaid wages, commissions, and bonuses, accrued holiday and vacation pay, pension and 401(k) contributions, and other benefits that would have been covered for the 60-day notice period.
The case is Rivera v. Yellow Corp., and was filed on August 1, 2023, in the federal District Court for the District of Delaware. Yellow has not responded to the lawsuit, but told the workers’ union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, on July 30 that the layoffs fell into the WARN Act’s exceptions.
If you believe your employer terminated you in violation of the WARN Act, contact MSE at info@mselaborlaw.com.
