Arel Trucking Failed to Provide 60 Days’ Advance Notice Prior to ‘Foreseeable’ March 2023 Layoffs

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims Arel Trucking, Inc. failed to provide employees with at least 60 days’ advance notice prior to a mass layoff earlier this year.

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The 13-page lawsuit says that the Florida-based freight carrier ran afoul of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act when it “abruptly” terminated around 455 employees in late March 2023 without providing the advance notice required by law. The suit also claims that the company has failed to pay all wages owed to certain terminated employees.

As the case tells it, the insufficient notice deprived Arel Trucking employees and their families of important “transition time” to adapt, look for other jobs or find training programs to build skills and become competitive in the job market.

The complaint argues that although the defendant will “likely” claim that the layoff was an “unforeseeable business circumstance” and seek exemption from the WARN Act, the law still requires companies to “give as much notice [to employees] as is practicable.”

What’s more, industry publication FreightWaves.com reported last March that there had been red flags about the company’s financial situation, including reports of employees’ paychecks bouncing, the filing adds. In light of this, the case contends that the layoff was “not only foreseeable by [the defendant] long before March of 2023” but was in fact “foreseen.”

The plaintiff, a former truck driver with Arel, was terminated in the mass layoff in March of this year, the complaint relays.

The lawsuit looks to represent any Arel Trucking employees in the United States who were not given a minimum of 60 days’ written notice of termination and whose employment was terminated within 30 days of March 22, 2023 as a result of a “mass layoff” or “plant closing” (as defined by the WARN Act). The suit also aims to cover any drivers employed by the defendant who were denied compensation for work performed at any time since April 27, 2021.

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