Swap.com Class Action Says Mass Layoff Violated Employment Law

A former employee recently filed a class action lawsuit against Swap.com alleging that she and nearly 200 other employees were laid off without receiving proper notice.

Plaintiff Delaney Haefner filed the Swap.com class action lawsuit claiming that the online thrift store fired her and other employees at the company’s headquarters without giving proper notice.

Haefner brings her claims under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) which requires employers to give employees at least 60 days of advance written notice before they are terminated.

Swap.com is a large online thrift and consignment store which was launched in 2013. The company grew dramatically and by 2015 had hired more than 200 people and moved into a new headquarters building in Bolingbrook, Ill., outside of Chicago.

Currently, the company has additional offices in Chicago and Helsinki. The website sells millions of used items commonly found in thrift stores including toys, games, and clothing for men, women, and children.

The Swap.com class action lawsuit states that Haefner was an employee for Swap.com at the company’s headquarters in Bolingbrook. On Mar. 30, 2018, she and 196 other employees were allegedly terminated. The Swap.com employee argues that this magnitude of termination constitutes a mass layoff under the WARN Act, meaning Haefner and the other employees were entitled to advance written warning.

“Defendant was required by the WARN Act to give the plaintiff and the other similarly situated employees at least 60 days advance written notice prior to their terminations,” the Swap.com class action lawsuit states. “Prior to their terminations, neither the plaintiff nor the other similarly situated employees received written notice that complied with the requirements of the WARN Act.”

Haefner also argues that she and the other employees were entitled to 60 days of employee benefits following their termination. These benefits include wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday/vacation pay, 401(k) contributions, and health insurance coverage. In filing her Swap.com class action lawsuit, Haefner seeks to recover unpaid employee benefits for herself and her former colleagues.

“A class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of this controversy—particularly in the context of WARN Act litigation, where an individual Plaintiff and Class Members may lack the financial resources to vigorously prosecute a lawsuit in federal court against a corporate defendant,” the Swap.com class action lawsuit argues.

Haefner seeks to represent a Class of Swap.com employees who worked at the facility and were fired as part of a mass layoff on Mar. 30, 2018.

The proposed Class would constitute around 200 former Swap.com employees. The Swap.com class action seeks an award of employee benefits (unpaid wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday/vacation pay, and 401(k) contributions), court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Plaintiffs are represented by Stuart J. Miller of Lankenau & Miller LLP; Mary E. Olsen and M. Vance McCrary of The Gardner Firm PC; and Blair R. Zanzig and John F. Hiltz of Hiltz & Zanzig LLC.

The Swap.com Mass Employee Layoff Class Action Lawsuit is Haefner v. Swap.com Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-03682, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.