It appears to be the ‘layoff season’ in the United States, as a Mississippi-based furniture company abruptly fired all of its 2,700 of its employees ahead of Thanksgiving, according to multiple media reports. Employees were reportedly sent an email or a text message asking them to not come to work the next day.
“At the instruction of the board of directors…we regret to inform you that due to unforeseen business circumstances, the company has been forced to make the difficult decision to terminate the employment of all its employees, effective immediately, on November 21,” said the United Furniture Industries (UFI), in one of the messages sent to workers, reported the New York Post.
“Your layoff from the company is expected to be permanent and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of COBRA,” said the UFI, in the message. The provision referred to is a federal law which gives employees an option (in some cases) to retain their health insurance, which is paid for by the employer.
The messages were sent right before midnight on November 21 while several employees were asleep, said a report by the Guardian. However, the “over-the-road drivers” that were out of delivery were an exception to the immediate termination and were told that they will be paid for the rest of the week but they should “return equipment, inventory and delivery documents,” immediately, said the New York post citing the memo.
The company was at least two decades old and had reportedly fired three of its top executives earlier this year. This was followed by UFI firing at least 500 employees across three states, North Carolina, Mississippi and California, said media reports.
A company spokesperson told FreightWaves that the employees were asked to come on Tuesday to gather their belongings. The email said, “We are not certain of the timeframe for this but will communicate proactively.” Reportedly, no other explanation was given to the workers for their abrupt termination and the employees have since expressed shock and anger.
“It’s not fair to the labourers who seriously worked so hard to be blindsided like this. It’s not fair to the mom who just had a baby to wonder if she even has health insurance to cover it…not fair to the cancer patient in the midst of chemo about how to pay for her treatments,” said one of the employees to FreightWaves.
Meanwhile, a former employee in Mississippi has reportedly filed a lawsuit against UFI alleging that they violated federal law, according to which a worker must be given a 60-day notice before the company shuts its operations.
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