Charming Charlie Facing Proposed WARN Act Lawsuit After Mass Layoff [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on April 12, 2022
In re: Charming Charlie Holdings Inc. et al.
Filed: July 23, 2019 ◆§ 19-11534-CSS
A former Charming Charlie employee has filed a proposed class action lawsuit wherein she claims the women’s fashion retailer violated federal law when it laid off approximately 200 employees without warning after filing for bankruptcy.
Case Updates
April 8, 2022 – Charming Charlie Agrees to Settle WARN Suit
Charming Charlie has agreed to settle the allegations detailed on this page in a deal that would allow terminated employees to collect a share of the retailer’s bankruptcy proceeds.
In a memo filed April 4, the parties in the case asked the bankruptcy court to preliminarily approve the deal, which would cover roughly 218 employees who worked at, reported to, or received assignments at Charming Charlie’s Houston and Missouri City, Texas locations and who were terminated without cause around when or as a result of the mass layoff in July 2019.
If approved, the deal would allow those covered by the settlement to be paid 25 percent of the gross cash recoveries received by Charming Charlie from bankruptcy avoidance actions, i.e., actions to recover money that was transferred prior to the bankruptcy case’s filing.
Payments to terminated employees will be determined based on their wages, commissions and benefits during the 60-day period prior to the date Charming Charlie filed for bankruptcy.
If the settlement is approved, those covered by the deal should receive notice with instructions on what to do next.
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A former Charming Charlie employee has filed a proposed class action lawsuit wherein she claims the women’s fashion retailer violated federal law when it laid off approximately 200 employees without warning after filing for bankruptcy. The case out of Delaware claims workers should have been given at least 60 days’ advance written notice of the terminations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
According to the plaintiff, who worked for the defendants as a copywriter, the employees were terminated from the retailer’s Houston headquarters on July 12, 2019 with no advance written notice. The case claims the terminations were “reasonably foreseeable” and that employees are owed 60 days’ worth of unpaid wages, commissions, bonuses, vacation pay, pension payments, 401(k) contributions, and other benefits they would have received during the 60-day notification period.
Among the defendants in the lawsuit are Charming Charlie Holdings, Inc.; Charming Charlie International LLC; Charming Charlie LLC; Charming Charlie Manhattan LLC; Charming Charlie USA, Inc.; Poseidon Partners CMS, Inc.; and Charming Charlie Canada LLC.
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