Paramount, CBS Interactive Facing Class Action Suit Over New York Layoffs

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Paramount Global and CBS Interactive violated New York law when the companies laid off hundreds of staffers, allegedly without requisite warning, in late September 2024.

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The seven-page lawsuit accuses Paramount and CBS Interactive of violating the New York Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act when they laid off more than 300 employees on or around September 30 who worked at or reported to (either in-person or remotely) Paramount’s Manhattan headquarters and other sites around the city.

The suit claims the written notification provided to the axed Paramount staffers was far less than the 90 days’ advanced notice required by the New York WARN Act. Paramount and CBS Interactive have also failed to pay 60 days’ wages and benefits as required by the state law, the case says.

The AV Club reports that the layoffs came amid “phase two” of a $500 million cost-cutting plan that includes Paramount slashing staff by 15 percent.

According to the complaint, on or around September 24, the plaintiff and roughly 294 other employees, as well as 50 to 60 others who worked at the 513, 518, 524, 530 or 555 W. 57th St., New York Paramount offices, were told that their employment was terminated effective September 30. The suit asserts that the employees were laid off without cause “as the reasonably foreseeable consequence of the mass layoff,” indicating that Paramount, due to its workforce size, is bound by the requirements of the NY WARN Act.

A ”mass layoff” is defined under the NY WARN Act as a reduction in workforce that is not the result of a plant closing and causes an unemployment loss at a single site of employment during any 30-day period for at least 250 or more full-time employees, the lawsuit explains. The suit says Paramount and CBS Interactive are together a single employer and integrated entity given that they share the same facilities, employees, financial ownership and control and human resources and management personnel.

The Paramount WARN lawsuit looks to cover all individuals who worked at, reported to, or received assignments from Paramount and CBS Interactive’s headquarters at 1515 Broadway, New York or surrounding sites at 513, 518, 524, 530, or 555 W. 57th St., New York, and were fired without cause on or around August 25, 2024 through October 24, 2024, or were terminated without cause as the reasonably foreseeable consequence of the mass layoff, termination of operations, and/or transfer of operations ordered.

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