Law360, Los Angeles (August 06, 2014, 4:35 PM ET) -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is facing a putative class action in California court accusing it of not properly notifying its former employees of a mass layoff of up to roughly 400 workers in the state, and not paying them wages earned before termination.
The proposed class action, filed Monday, alleged that SpaceX ordered the mass layoffs of between 200 and 400 workers on or about July 21 without giving advance notice to the them, in violation of California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
The putative class comprises all nonexempt employees working at SpaceX facilities in California at any time within four years before the filing of the initial complaint through the date notice is mailed to a certified class who were subject to a mass layoff and didn't receive proper notice.
A second proposed class includes employees who weren't paid wages after their termination.
"Plaintiffs and other similarly situated employees also seek recovery of waiting time penalties as a result of defendants' failure to pay employees all wages due and owing at the time of their termination," the complaint says.
The Cal WARN Act requires employers to provide 60 days' written notice to affected employees of layoffs involving 50 or more employees in a 30-day period, according to the complaint. Employers who fail to do so must pay the affected employees up to 60 days of average regular rate of compensation or final rate of compensation, whichever is higher, the suit says.
Among the fired workers were plaintiffs Bobby R. Lee and Bron Gatling, who worked as structural technicians in the company's Hawthorne facility. They claimed SpaceX's failure to pay the fired employees all wages earned before termination in accordance with the California Labor Code was willful.
They also accused SpaceX of violating California's Unfair Competition Law through the alleged conduct.
In addition to damages in the amount of 60 days' pay and benefits, the suit seeks the value of the cost of any benefits to which the employees would have been entitled had their employment continued, either of them continuing up to 60 days or one-half the number of days SpaceX employed plaintiffs and the Cal WARN class.
The suit also seeks pre- and post-judgment interest, as well as attorneys' fees and costs of the suit.
Spokesmen for SpaceX and attorneys for the plaintiffs didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Lee and Gatling are represented by Lee R. Feldman, Alicia Olivares and Leonard H. Sansanowicz of Feldman Browne Olivares APC.
Counsel information for SpaceX wasn't immediately available.
The case is Bobby R. Lee et al. v. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., case number BC552901, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.
--Editing by Chris Yates.
