Yellow Corporation Hit with WARN Act Class Actions Over Alleged Mass Layoffs Without Notice

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Yellow Corporation and several subsidiaries have been hit with two proposed class actions filed by former employees who claim the trucking company failed to provide at least 60 days’ advance notice before terminating nearly 30,000 workers.

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The lawsuits say that beginning on July 28, 2023, the companies carried out mass layoffs and widespread facility closures across the country that resulted in the termination of at least 33 percent of Yellow employees—a threshold number that, according to the cases, triggers notification requirements under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Per the suits, the defendants violated the WARN Act by failing to give workers 60 days’ notice prior to their termination as part of a mass layoff or plant closing. One of the cases also claims the companies breached the New Jersey WARN Act, which requires 90 days’ advance notice to be given to workers before the loss of employment due to a mass layoff or termination of operations, and the California Labor Code.

The complaints name as defendants Yellow Corporation and subsidiaries YRC Inc., USF Holland LLC, New Penn Motor Express LLC and USF Reddaway Inc., which together operated a nationwide less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping service that has recently ceased operations and is reportedly filing for bankruptcy.

The lawsuits accuse Yellow of failing to pay employees their wages, commissions, bonuses and accrued holiday pay and vacation for 60 days following their terminations and failing to provide benefits such as health insurance coverage and 401(k) contributions during that time.

According to one lawsuit, the defendants also failed to provide New Jersey employees severance pay equal to one week’s wages for each year worked, plus an additional four weeks’ compensation, as required by state law.

One of the plaintiffs, a former dock worker and union steward, says he was among roughly 600 employees at Yellow’s Bloomington, California facility who were terminated on July 28 without cause or advance notice.

The lawsuits look to represent any employees who worked at, received assignments from or reported to one of the defendants’ facilities and were terminated without cause as part of a mass layoff and/or plant closing ordered by Yellow around July 28, 2023 and thereafter.

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