Yahoo Finance Former employee calls out banking giant Barclays, claiming hundreds in Ohio were laid off without notice
Hundreds of workers in a small Ohio city are reeling after banking giant Barclays terminated 252-plus jobs in one fell swoop. One former employee claims they weren’t provided any notice.
Tammy Williams told Local 12 news she was let go by the company on May 22 after working at the bank’s call center in Hamilton for eight years.
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She claims the bank failed to provide any notice of its pending layoffs and job terminations, causing lots of confusion and distress among impacted employees.
“There was no sign of respect, integrity or even just caring about other people shown by Barclays,” Williams said.
Specifically, she flagged the challenges that some of her younger co-workers may be facing by their sudden unemployment.
“If they’ve got kids, how are they going to feed the kids? How are you going keep a roof over your head? Keep the lights on? Food on the table?”
Here’s what happened and what rights you have if your employer lets you go in this way.
The WARN Act
Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, U.S. employers with 100 or more employees are meant to provide at least 60 calendar days advance written notice of a plant closing and mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees at a single site of employment.
Generally, these rules do not count for those who have worked less than six months in the last 12 months, or those who work an average of less than 20 hours a week. Other exemptions exist when layoffs occur due to “unforeseeable business circumstances, faltering companies and natural disasters,” according to the Department of Labor (DOL).
The DOL says the purpose of this advanced notice is to give workers and their families “some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain other jobs and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to compete successfully in the job market.”
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Williams told Local 12 she did not receive such advanced notice, and that it took Barclays 24 hours — after she was locked out of her email and other work accounts — to call her and officially tell her she was terminated.
She says her employment stopped immediately — and not as of July 20, the date the bank said separations would formally begin, according to a notice it sent to the state on May 21, which was obtained by Local 12.
In that notice, Barclays wrote that it will be “permanently closing” the call center on Sept. 13, or within 14 days of that date.
The letter continued: “As a result, most of the Barclays employees employed at this location will be permanently terminated from Barclays’ employment. The schedule of separations shall begin July 20, 2024 and end on the Closure Date. This closure will impact 252 Barclays employees who are employed at the site.”
Know your rights
Williams says the layoffs caught her completely by surprise. She said she had no intention of stopping working or retiring any time soon.
“I was going work as long as the good Lord gave me the strength to work,” she said. “I just wish they would have said something sooner to maybe give us that opportunity to find other employment. I'm at that age now where [I'm asking,] ‘Am I going be able to find work?’ I don't know.”
Williams says that Barclays informed her she would receive a severance package, but she hadn’t received anything by the time she spoke to Local 12 on May 22.
The local news program reached out to the mega bank for comment and received the following: “We’ve made the difficult decision to relocate the work performed by approximately 270 remote call center employees in Cincinnati to our other operations centers and will exit the site this summer. Assisting colleagues affected by this change is our top priority, and we will be providing them with a range of benefits and transition resources.”
Hamilton is about 20 miles north of Cincinnati.
If you are a victim of a mass layoff and you believe your employer violated their WARN obligations, you can review the DOL’s Worker's Guide to Advance Notice of Closings and Layoffs for information on what to do.
Employers found to violate WARN may be subject to various penalties and can be held liable to each affected employee for an amount equal to back pay and benefits for the period of violation, up to 60 days.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
