Teamsters Riled By NationsWay's Selective Back Pay
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"It's definitely discriminatory to pay some people's back pay and not others," said Mike Booth, an official with Teamsters Local 17. The union represents about 260 freight handlers and local truck drivers at various NationsWay facilities in Colorado.
Booth said the bankrupt Commerce City trucking firm selectively paid back wages only to employees who continued to move freight for the company after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Arizona.
The May 20 filing left more than 1,000 employees out of work in Denver and 3,500 unemployed nationally. The workers lost their final paychecks, vacation pay and other reimbursements.
Don Gaffney, one of NationsWay's bankruptcy attorneys, said the company requested permission from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sarah Curley to pay all of the back-wage claims of employees.
The judge issued such an order, but it was subject to cash being available to make the wage payments.
Gaffney said that the bankrupt firm did not have the money to pay all of the back wages due to employees.
But NationsWay was able to secure enough cash to pay the wages of those employees who continued to work after the bankruptcy, including wages accrued before May 20, he said.
The total amount of the unpaid payroll has not been determined.
Frederick Perillo, an attorney who represents the Teamsters, said he estimates that workers are owed about $5 million in wages accrued prior to the bankruptcy filing and a similar amount of money for accrued vacation pay and other forms of compensation.
Booth said if the NationsWay estate had only a limited amount of money to pay workers, all employees should have received an equal portion of what they were owed.
NationsWay reported liabilities of more than $100 million at the time of its bankruptcy filing last month.
