When Falcon Transport announced plans to close down and laid off about 550 staff members on April 27 it failed to properly inform those affected and is now facing an employee lawsuit.
According to Jayson Calhoun, Falcon Transport’s director of operations, on April 27, Falcon Transport sent emails to their employees telling them to stop working and that the company was shutting down all locations. Additionally, Calhoun stated that the parent company, Counterpoint Capital Partners of Los Angeles, did not disclose why they were shutting down the 116-year-old organization.
The sudden closure left employees shocked and caused at least one staff member to sue. On April 29, two days after the closure announcement, the company was sued for failure to give sufficient notice to employees who were terminated.
Stuart Miller, an attorney in New York City representing Mary Chavez [a terminated employee of Falcon Transport], said that the company’s actions violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN).
Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services lists no WARN notice for Falcon Transport which Miller said could potentially mean that the company will have to pay workers’ wages for 60-days, with benefits.