Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity Facing Class Action Over Nov. 2021 Mass Layoff

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A proposed class action aims to represent all employees who were terminated as part of a mass layoff executed by the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity (JCCEO) on or around November 24, 2021 without receiving at least 60 days’ advance notice. 

The nine-page lawsuit alleges the non-profit ran afoul of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act when it terminated hundreds of employees a day before Thanksgiving without prior notice and as a result of “financial mismanagement.” According to the suit, at least 33 percent of JCCEO’s active workforce, excluding part-time employees, were affected by the layoff. 

Under the WARN Act, companies of a certain workforce size are required to provide at least 60 days’ advance notice of an impending mass layoff or plant closing. Employees who do not receive the statutory advance notice prior to a layoff may be entitled to seek damages for back pay and benefits for up to 60 days. 

Around the time of the layoff, the defendant, whose employees provided various services to low-income residents of Jefferson County, Alabama, informed workers that they would not receive paychecks for the prior week’s work or going forward, the suit claims. The lawsuit says that although JCCEO officials stated on December 1 that the business would pay employees affected by the layoff wages earned up until December 12, that offer has “since been rescinded and no payments have been forthcoming.” 

Reporter Roy S. Johnson of AL.com wrote on November 24 that the layoffs came two days after the JCCEO board of directors revealed a $2 million financial shortfall and faced imminent layoffs since the group did not have enough funds to make payroll through the end of the year. According to AL.com, the JCCEO Board fired Executive Director Sharon Myles on November 1 and terminated five personal services contracts. Board Chair Gary Richardson told AL.com that “[w]e were led to believe we had a certain amount of cash.” 

An AL.com report published on November 22 states that the board chair called the JCCEO “dead” without a $3 million infusion from Birmingham and Jefferson County. 

The lawsuit looks to represent all former Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity employees who lost their jobs without being given proper notice and benefits under the WARN Act. 

The WARN Act applies to businesses with 100 or more full-time workers, with certain exclusions, or who employ 100 or more workers who work at least a combined 4,000 hours per week. A mass layoff is characterized under the law as the firing of either between 50 and 499 full-time workers at a single site, equating to 33 percent of a company’s workforce, or the layoff of 500 or more full-time workers at a single site of employment. 

Though the suit states that the JCCEO laid off “approximately 500 employees,” AL.com has revised its initial report to state that the actual number of workers laid off was 258. 

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