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Law360 (December 10, 2020, 7:15 PM EST) -- A former employee of BIC Graphic, the custom printing arm of the brand known for its ballpoint pens, filed a proposed class suit Wednesday claiming the company violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act by laying off more than 100 workers at two Florida facilities without warning.
Eric Jones, who had worked at BIC Graphic in Clearwater, Florida, for more than 16 years, said the company violated the WARN Act's requirement that employers give 60 days' notice of potential mass layoffs.
Jones said he expects BIC Graphic to claim that the COVID-19 pandemic falls under the "unforeseeable business circumstance" exemption in the WARN Act, but he noted that even when 60 days' notice is impossible, employers are required under the statute to give as much notice as possible.
"It failed to do so here, giving named plaintiff no advance written notice of his termination whatsoever," Jones said.
The suit states that BIC Graphic likely knew by the end of March or early April that a mass layoff was reasonably foreseeable, given a large-scale furlough of workers issued on March 26. Jones was among those furloughed without pay, according to the complaint.
But he said that the company led workers to believe through the summer and fall that they would soon return to work. It wasn't until the Nov. 20 letter terminating him immediately that he found out the job would be gone, the suit said.
At least 33% of the full-time employees in the company's two Clearwater facilities were terminated, according to the suit.
He is looking to represent a class of BIC Graphic workers who, like Jones, were terminated on Nov. 20 without warning. He is also seeking the 60 days' pay and benefits he would have received had he received proper notice under the WARN Act.
A BIC Graphic representative could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Jones is represented by Luis A. Cabassa and Brandon J. Hill of Wenzel Fenton Cabassa PA, and Chad A. Justice of Justice for Justice LLC.
Counsel information for the defendant was unavailable.
The case is Jones et al. v. Scribe Opco Inc., case number 8:20-cv-02945, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
--Editing by Steven Edelstone.
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