Nextbite Owed 60 Days’ Notice Prior to May 2023 Layoffs, Class Actions Allege

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A proposed class action claims Nextbite Brands and its parent company failed to provide workers with enough prior notice before a mass layoff at Nextbite’s Denver, Colorado headquarters last month.

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The nine-page lawsuit says Nextbite, a subsidiary of restaurant technology service provider Ordermark, provides delivery-only brands that restaurants can license and sell out of existing “ghost kitchens.” According to the case, the defendants violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act by terminating approximately 130 employees throughout May 2023 amid an allegedly “foreseeable” mass layoff without providing at least 60 days’ advance written notice.

The plaintiff is a former supply chain analyst who was one of about 90 employees laid off without cause from Nextbite’s Denver facility on May 15, and says she was notified that her termination would be effective immediately. Roughly 40 workers were fired on May 5, also without 60 days’ advance written notice, the case adds.

Per the complaint, Nextbite and Ordermark were required to comply with WARN Act notice requirements since they terminated more than 50 employees and over 33 percent of their workforce at the Denver office.

The complaint further charges that the defendants have failed to pay terminated employees their respective wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, health and life insurance premiums, benefits and accrued holiday and vacation pay for 60 days following their terminations. In fact, affected employees were told on May 17 that their health insurance coverage would be terminated on May 31, the suit says.

According to the filing, many terminated workers now face significant financial burdens due to the defendants’ “sudden curtailment” of their income and insurance. The case stresses that the plaintiff, whose paid maternity leave was scheduled to continue until July 17 but ended on May 17, is now uninsured and uncertain as to how much healthcare she will be able to provide for herself and her baby, who suffers from underlying health issues.

“Had Plaintiff been provided WARN notice, she would have had two months to attend to her newborn while looking for a job under the umbrella of healthcare coverage,” the suit says. “Her immediate priorities would not be scrambling to find insurance and a way to pay for it – along with all her other needs - until she can find work.”

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who worked at, received assignments from, or reported to the defendants’ Denver facility and was terminated without cause within 90 days of May 15, 2023 as the reasonably foreseeable consequence of the mass layoff and/or plant closing ordered by Nextbite Brands, LLC and Ordermark, Inc.

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