Dillon Logistics Mass Layoff Violation of WARN Act Class Action

This class action is brought by the employees of Dillon Logistics, Inc. and Cotton Creek Capital Partners II, LP, in reference to a mass layoff or plant closing that was ordered around August 31, 2021. The complaint points to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (the WARN Act) and alleges that the companies violated the act by not giving the employees at least sixty days’ advance written notice of termination.

The class for this action is all those who worked at the facilities and were terminated as part of or as a result of the mass layoff or plant closure ordered by Dillon Logistics and Cotton Creek, as a single employer, on or around August 31, 2021. The facility was located in Ellabell Georgia.

It appears that, under the WARN Act, a “single employer” is necessary for claims. The complaint alleges that the two defendants, Dillon and Cotton Creek, together form that single employer.

The complaint makes several allegations in support of this “upon information and belief:” that Cotton Creek owned a majority interest in Dillon; that Dillon did not maintain its own Board of Directors but relied on the Board of Directors of Cotton Creek; that Dillon’s daily operating funds were provided by Cotton Creek or by financing Cotton Creek arranged. It also claims, upon information and belief, that just before the mass layoffs, the president of Dillon was replaced by the former president of another Cotton Creek investment company, and that the decision to close down was made by Cotton Creek.

The complaint estimates that some 350 people worked at the plant and were terminated without cause on the same day.

According to the complaint, under the WARN Act, the companies were supposed to provide written notice to these employees sixty days before the termination, or at least provide the notice as soon as it was practicable, explaining why the sixty days’ prior notice was not given.

Under the WARN Act, the complaint claims, the companies were supposed to pay the employees “their respective wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay and accrued vacation for 60 working days following their respective terminations” and were supposed to “make the pension and 401(k) contributions, provide other employee benefits under ERISA, and pay their medical expenses for 60 calendar days from and after the dates of their respective terminations.”

The employees have therefore filed this class action to recover an amount equal to the amounts they should have received but did not.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Employment
Tags: Employment Violations, Unfair Layoffs, WARN Act