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As many of you know, when Century 21 filed for bankruptcy last year Local 888 filed claims alleging that that Century 21 did not give many of you the amount of notice of layoff required by the Federal and State governments. These are known as WARN Act Notices. Century 21 claimed that it did not violate the law and fought us in Bankruptcy Court. In attempting to negotiate a settlement, we joined with a group of non-union management employees who had filed a class action complaint about the WARN Act notices.
We are pleased to report that after many months of difficult negotiations and a mediation conducted by a former bankruptcy judge, Local 888 has reached a settlement of the WARN Act claims with Century 21’s representative.
Local 888 now has to obtain approval of the settlement by the Bankruptcy Judge. A motion was filed on Friday, January 21 seeking approval of the Settlement. Because the management employees don’t have a union and instead filed a “class action,“ approval will require two bankruptcy court orders – preliminary approval at a hearing on February 17, and final approval at a hearing expected to take place in April. If the Settlement is approved, payments are expected to be made later this year. It is expected that former Union employees who were full time at the time of their termination will receive approximately $1,093.87, and former part time Union employees at the time of their termination will receive approximately $546.94, subject to later payment of taxes. Former employees who retired or resigned prior to being terminated will not receive a payment. Former employees who were retained for over 60 days after WARN Notices were issued will also receive payments because they did not receive an additional WARN notice.
Non-union managers, supervisors, and other employees will receive about the same amount per person under this settlement as union employees, even though they on average earned more than Union employees.
We believe that this is a very favorable settlement, especially since resolution of this case could have taken years with no guarantee that any payments would be made.
Local 888 will keep you informed of the progress of the settlement motion in Court. At this time you do not have to do anything, except that if you have changed your address (or changed your email address) since you were terminated by the Company, please provide your current contact information to Local 888 at 732-470-0663.
Even after the bankruptcy and closing of the old Century 21, Local 888 has continued to fight for a better outcome for you in these difficult circumstances, and is proud to have reached this settlement.
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