Red Bull Distributor The Beverage Works Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over June 2024 Layoffs

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The Beverage Works faces a proposed class action lawsuit after the long-time Red Bull distributor allegedly laid off nearly 200 employees without advance notice amid “foreseeable” plant closings in early June 2024.

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The 12-page Beverage Works lawsuit claims the Wall, New Jersey-headquartered energy drink distributor violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act by failing to provide at least 60 days’ advance notice to employees prior to their terminations and a similar New York law by failing to provide the requisite 90 days’ notice.

The case contends those laid off by The Beverage Works in June 2024 are owed at least 60 days’ back pay and benefits.

According to the complaint, The Beverage Works had the non-exclusive right to market, distribute and sell Red Bull products within the New York/New Jersey territory. The defendant operated facilities in Brooklyn, Farmingdale and Peekskill, New York, the case says.

Per the lawsuit, The Beverage Works was notified by Red Bull around March 19, 2024 that, pursuant to its unconditional right to terminate its distributor agreement with the company, it would in fact end the partnership effective on June 2 of this year. The case says that The Beverage Works began to wind down its business “as soon as Red Bull, its only customer, gave it 77 days’ notice that its distribution agreement was terminated.”

Though the defendant’s wind down included notifying New Jersey around May 1 that it would be closing down operations in the state on June 3, the company did not notify New York of the planned closure until around May 31 and only thereafter informed employees in the state of their June 3 termination, the filing shares.

The suit says that while New Jersey employees have received WARN Act backpay in lieu of being notified of their layoffs, New York Beverage Works employees have not received any WARN Act pay in lieu of notice.

“None of Defendant’s employees, including Plaintiff, received written 60 or 90 days’ notice of their terminations prior to June 3, 2024,” the complaint claims.

Long Island Business News reported on June 7 that The Beverage Works sued Red Bull North America Inc. in April, alleging that the company unfairly terminated its distribution agreement and violated New Jersey law in the process. The defendant alleged in its case against Red Bull that it had made financial investments that “went well beyond the payment for Red Bull products that Beverage Works sold to retailers” and that, because The Beverage Works was not allowed to distribute any other products, the end of its deal with Red Bull destroyed its business, LIBN wrote.

The Beverage Works lawsuit looks to cover anyone who worked or was based at, or reported to and received assignments from, the company’s facilities and was terminated without cause on or around June 3, 2024, and within 90 days of that date, as the reasonably foreseeable consequence of the mass layoff and/or plant closing ordered by The Beverage Works on or around June 3 of this year.

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