Sprint Shelves 1,400 Workers, Presuming to Violate Federal Law

It is presumed that the American phone network Sprint, might have violated the federal law when it put on the shelf around 1,400 workers. The info is backed up by a release stating that the Sprint network has to pay $4.5 million to the fired workers, that means that each one should receive around $3,100 plus some other benefits that the carrier would have to pay.

The Sprint Corporation is said to have broken the federal law since it did not provide its workers with a 60-day notice, since the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act states that there has to be a 60-day notice before a worker is being laid-off, with also benefits to be supported by the company, in case there are more than 50 layoffs.

There was a WARN Act issued by the CWA, according to which the Sprint didn’t provide a 60- or a 90-day notice before is being laid off.

But according to representatives at Sprint, the corporation fired its workers on March 18, telling them that they would terminate their jobs on March 25, with pays to be made on April 8. The corporation also filed a report addressed to the Kansas Department of Commerce on March 18, reporting that the layoffs would concern only 477 employees and not 1,400.

On their defense, the corporation issued a report, rejecting the claims to which they were subdued, stating that every employee received a 60-day notification and benefits. More to it, the representatives also noted that in other states, the law requires a 90-day notice and benefits.

The WARN ACT has been numerously violated by other corporations or companies in the past. We might be going back in 2013, when ESPN lost a lawsuit, because their branch office in Baltimore closed down one of the restaurants they owned there, without notifying their employees. More than that, in August 2012, Solyndra LLC, the famous solar-panel maker, also didn’t notify its workers, after reaching a $3.5 million settlement with its former workers.