Employees file suit against bankrupt LI-based Acclaim Entertainment

More than 170 employees have signed onto a suit seeking to recoup more than $500,000 from bankrupt video-game maker Acclaim Entertainment for allegedly refusing to give them proper notice before termination.

One hundred and thirty former employees in Texas and 41 on Long Island signed onto the suit, which charges Acclaim violated federal law by failing to give workers 60 days notice before shutting down.

Calls to the attorney representing Acclaim weren't returned.

A spokesman for Acclaim said he had no comment on the suit, which was proceeding through the courts.

If they prove a violation, they can recover a day of wages for each day of the 60 days they didn't get notice, said Mark Fancher, senior staff attorney at the Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in Detroit and co-counsel in the case.

The suit, seeking nearly $5,000 per employee, is being filed based on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The Act regulates firms employing 100 workers or more, with certain exceptions, regarding layoffs.

The law requires one simple thing: that the employer give the employees 60 days advance notice of plans to shut down a plant or effect a mass layoff, Fancher said. It doesn't require them to pay a dime, just to keep them on a payroll for a 60 day period so the workers can make a transition.

If the notice isn't given, employees can sue for wages that they would receive for up to 60 days.

There are exceptions if companies can prove unforeseeable business circumstances led to the closing.

Some companies try and invoke that. But the standard the court uses when they look at this is, 'Could a reasonable business person doing business as this person was have foreseen it?' Fancher said. If the answer is yes, they're still liable.

He said compliance is increasing nationwide, but that some employers still fail to give notice and others find ways around doing so.

Some employers, he said, inform workers that they are being laid off without 60-day notice, even though the firm is aware of that requirement and would like to comply.

They then offer a two-week severance package in return for agreements by employees not to invoke the 60-day provision.

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
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