Some former employees of Party City are suing the New Jersey-based company after it announced Dec. 20 it was filing for bankruptcy and instituting layoffs the same day.
Party City employed 400 people at its Woodcliff Lake headquarters, has 25 stores across the state and a total of 850 stores across the country.
New Jersey employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against Party City, led by attorney Jack Raisner.
“Both state and federal WARN Acts require that employers give adequate notice before people are terminated — under the federal law, 60 days, under the NJ WARN Act, 90 days. So you have to be given a written notice telling you that now it’s time, basically, for you to start taking steps, precautions, looking for jobs, saving money, etc. against the moment when you’re not going to have income, you’re not going to have insurance. So that’s the purpose of the bill. And in the case of Party City, no notice was given prior to the shutdown,” Raisner said.
As of now, only employees at the corporate headquarters are included in the lawsuit, because store locations are still open, so those employees are still working. It’s unclear when stores will close and whether those employees could join the lawsuit.
