Excel Storage Products Sued for WARN Act Violations by Outten & Golden LLP for Failure to Give Adequate Notice to Employees of Plant Closing
Ten days after the sudden closing of Excel Storage Products, Inc., stranding hundreds of employees in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Cadiz, Ohio and Lodi, California, the Bankruptcy Court named Outten & Golden class counsel for approximately 3,000 ex-employees of Taylor Bean & Whitaker across the nation who were fired during their lunch hours.
New York, NY (PRWEB) October 7, 2010
The events shock and the questions abound. The Pennsylvania-based Excel Storage Products, Inc. shut down on September 17, 2010 without any advance notice has left hundreds of employees without jobs or health insurance. Facing bleak prospects ahead, the Excel employees join the ranks of workers who believed they were safe in their jobs one day, and but find themselves fighting for survival the next. As their employers plunge into bankruptcy they face a double nightmare of sudden job loss plus the loss of health insurance. Increasingly, employees around the country are asking one law firm what they can legally do to relieve their plight - Outten & Golden LLP, the largest national employee rights law firm. Outten & Golden LLP has filed almost 40 class action lawsuits on behalf of laid off employees in recent years, and was appointed WARN class counsel to a nationwide class of approximately 3,000 employees in Callahan, et al. v. Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp Case No. 09-00439, U. S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida, who were abruptly fired, as were Excel Storage employees.
Excel employees contacted Outten & Golden LLP from Cadiz, Lodi and East Stroudsburg almost immediately after the shutdown, and one week later, on September 24, 2010, the firm filed the first class action lawsuit against Excel and its parent, Excel Capital Partners, on behalf of the employees who worked at the East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Lodi, California and Cadiz, Ohio facilities, among others, seeking to recover 60 days wages and benefits for each affected employee for violation of the federal (and California) Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act; Ruth Blackburn, Gladys Coston-Gibson and Jared Meinecke v. Excel Storage Products L. P., and Excel Capital Partners, LLC., Case No. 10-00368. Outten & Golden appeared in the Bankruptcy Court at its first hearing this week on behalf of the employees in its suit.
Rene Roupinian, a partner at Outten & Golden LLP, who co-chairs the firm's WARN Act practice group, says that the firm has been contacted by Excel employees from both coasts expressing shock at the shoddy treatment they received in connection with their abrupt terminations. "Unfortunately, their stories are eerily similar to those of former employees of Quaker Fabric, Aguiar v. Quaker Fabric Corporation, Case No. 07-51716, U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Binford v. First Magnus Capital Inc., Case No. 08-01494, U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona, Czyzewski v. Jevic Transportation, Inc., Case No. 08-50662, U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Mofield vs. FNX Mining Company USA Inc., Case No., 08-00105, U. S. District Court Middle District of Tennessee and Callahan v. Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp, Case No. 09-00439, U. S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida - some of the tens of thousands of employees represented by our firm in WARN class actions - all of whom learned they were terminated on the day their companies shut down."
Jack Raisner, a partner at Outten & Golden LLP, points out that this scenario has been playing out across the nation during the Great Recession, leading to many angry workers and lawsuits. "Employees especially resent being kept in the dark, or worse being falsely told their jobs are secure, only to be tossed to the curb. That's why written notice is so important, in fact, it's the law under the WARN Act
"Many employees do not realize that when an employer goes out of business, health insurance plans are usually terminated along with the employees, which unfortunately is what the Excel employees are dealing with," Roupinian says. "In our experience, litigating more than 60 WARN cases nationwide, a majority in bankruptcy courts, employees are let go with no insurance to pay for necessary prescriptions and medical procedures for themselves and their families. It's a harsh reality and can often be more devastating than the sudden loss of income."
For more information about the case and Outten & Golden's WARN practice, please visit our website
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