FORWARD Hit with WARN Act Class Action Over Alleged Mass Layoff Without Notice

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A proposed class action claims Geocko, Inc., which does business as FORWARD, failed to give employees proper advance notice prior to a mass layoff in December 2023.

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The 14-page lawsuit was filed by a Florida resident who worked as a remote employee for the Seattle-based company, which provides software assistance programs and technology solutions for local governments, community-based organizations and nonprofits. The plaintiff claims that FORWARD violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act when it terminated him and more than 50 other workers on December 4 of last year without cause and without providing them at least 60 days’ advance notice.

The suit relays that before the mass layoff, FORWARD had decided to cease business in Florida and allowed its state business license to lapse in late September 2023.

According to the case, the fact that the revocation of FORWARD’s business license occurred more than 60 days before the layoff “clearly demonstrates that [the defendant] had ample time to provide [the plaintiff] and the Putative Class with proper notification of its decision to terminate them, yet decided to provide them with no notice of the termination, at all.”

In addition, the complaint contends that the mass layoff was not the result of any “unforeseeable business circumstances” that would exempt the company from the WARN Act’s requirements. To the contrary, the filing alleges, FORWARD was “financially thriving” and was not suffering under any conditions that would have prevented it from providing its workers with proper notice of their termination.

The suit argues that the company’s alleged violation of federal law is “particularly egregious” because the defendant has “no excuses for failing to comply with the WARN Act’s 60-day notice requirement.”

The case claims that as a result of the alleged WARN Act violations, the plaintiff and other former employees are entitled to recover from FORWARD damages in the amount of 60 days’ compensation and benefits.

The lawsuit looks to represent any former FORWARD employees in the United States who were not given a minimum of 60 days’ written notice of termination and whose employment was terminated on or about December 4, 2023, or within 30 days of that date, as a result of a mass layoff or plant closing.

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