BECKLEY – A West Virginia coal company is being sued after it instituted a sudden mass layoff.
Jonathan Conn, Austin Tilley and Nelson Saddler, individually and for all others similarly situated, filed a class-action lawsuit May 11 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia against Seneca Coal Resources LLC, alleging unpaid wages and benefits pursuant to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
According to the suit, the plaintiffs were Seneca Coal employees until the company ordered a mass layoff of approximately 120 employees on April 5. The suit alleges Seneca Coal is liable under the WARN Act for failure to provide the plaintiffs and class members at least 60 days' advance written notice of termination.
Seneca Coal then allegedly failed to pay these employees their respective wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay and accrued vacation for 60 days following their respective terminations. The company also allegedly failed to make pension and 401(k) contributions and provide them with health insurance coverage and other employee benefits for 60 days following their respective terminations.
The plaintiffs and others in the class seek a jury trial, interest, attorney fees and costs, and an amount equal to the sum of their unpaid wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay, accrued vacation pay, pension and 401(k) contributions and other benefits.
They are represented by attorneys Kyle G. Lusk and Mathew A. Bradford of Lusk & Bradford in Beckley, West Virginia; Stuart J. Miller of Lankenau & Miller in New York; Mary E. Olsen and M. Vance McCrary of The Gardner Firm in Mobile, Alabama; and cooperating counsel for The NLG Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in Detroit.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Case number 5:16-cv-04331