The Messenger Lawsuit Claims Defunct News Site Owed Advance Notice Prior to Jan. 2024 Layoffs [UPDATE]

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The Messenger faces a proposed class action lawsuit that alleges the now-shuttered news website unlawfully failed to provide at least 60 days’ advance notice before laying off roughly 300 employees in late January. 

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The 11-page Messenger lawsuit accuses the digital media startup’s operator, JAF Communications Inc., of violating the 60-day-notice provision of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and a similar New York law, which requires employees of certain-sized companies in the state to receive at least 90 days’ notice of any foreseeable mass layoffs or closings. 

According to the complaint, The Messenger was launched by JAF in May 2023 with the aim of disrupting the media industry. On January 2, 2024, the site, founded by Jimmy Finkelstein, former owner of The Hill, began a workforce reduction by abruptly terminating around 20 employees, and on the afternoon of January 31, the suit says, the remaining Messenger employees learned from the New York Times that they were being fired. 

“Within minutes after the story broke, The Messenger confirmed to the approximately 300 employees that they were terminated effective immediately,” the lawsuit describes. 

The filing contends that The Messenger was subject to federal WARN Act notice requirements given that it employed more than 100 people who in aggregate worked at least 4,000 hours per week, exclusive of overtime. As such, the website was required to provide at least 60 days’ advance written notice of the workers’ terminations, the suit stresses. 

“[The Messenger] failed to pay Plaintiff and each of the Class Members their respective wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, health and life insurance premiums, accrued holiday pay and accrued vacation for 60 days following their respective terminations, and failed to provide employee benefits including health insurance, for 60 days from and after the dates of their respective terminations.” 

The lawsuit looks to cover all individuals who worked or were based at, reported to and received assignments from The Messenger’s New York, Washington, D.C., or West Palm Beach, Florida offices and were terminated without cause around January 31, 2024, and within 90 days of that date, as the “reasonably foreseeable consequence” of the mass layoff ordered by JAF Communications. 

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