generic Former employees file federal lawsuit against United Furniture
Nov. 23—TUPELO — Less than 24 hours after United Furniture Industries fired its entire workforce, former employees filed two class action lawsuits against the furniture company in federal court.
The lawsuits are based on the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires companies with more than 100 employees to give 60 days advance written notice before layoffs or shutting down.
United employees said they got no prior notice that the company was going to permanently layoff all of its employees. The company sent a notification overnight Monday via text and email telling some 2,700 employees their employment was terminated and all benefits were ceasing — both effective immediately.
"This is one of the lowest things I have ever seen done," said attorney Philip Hearn. "Three days before Thanksgiving. You can't tell me they couldn't have waited until the Monday after Thanksgiving to do this."
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Booneville attorney Casey Lott's firm filed the first complaint in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen Tuesday around 4:30 p.m. The plaintiff in that case is Toria Neal, a Lee County resident who worked for United for more than eight years.
"Under the WARN Act, employees are entitled to back pay for every day they were shorted of the 60 days," Lott said. "Since the notification went out overnight, I think they should get the full two months severance pay."
Hearn filed the second complaint in the same court about 30 minutes later, but it did not enter the federal electronic filing system until Wednesday afternoon because of an issue with the paperwork. Hearn said his complaint lists 32 plaintiffs, but he already had another 150 former United employees signed up.
Hearn took to social media Tuesday to crowdsource plaintiffs. A Facebook post asked people wanting to join his lawsuit to text him their information to get the ball rolling.
"I had multiple other lawyers directing people to my firm," Hearn said. "Every phone at our office, personal and business, was tied up all day (Tuesday) with folks calling and texting. I feel we will have over 500 plaintiffs before it's over."
Both cases have been assigned to District Court Judge Sharion Aycock, and both seek to be certified as a class action. That certification would allow other former United employees to join the cases. Since the two lawsuits are nearly identical, the court could consolidate the complaints or simply certify one and allow the plaintiffs from the other case to join.
Since there are two lawsuits, the judge could also choose to appoint a class counsel, Lott said. He compared the process to a job interview.
Now that the two complaints have been filed, United has 30 days to respond. Once that deadline has passed, the judge will likely rule on the class certification request, Hearn said.
While United did not file a WARN Act notice when it terminated all its employees this week, it did file a notice in late June that 171 employees at the Amory facility would be laid off. The notice cited a "significant financial crisis" caused by major customers not buying as much inventory.
