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$1 million settlement approved for former Shop-Vac workers

SUN GAZETTE FILE PHOTO A $1 million settlement was recently approved for former Shop-Vac workers who claimed unjust job terminations.

WILLIAMSPORT — All of the protests, the court appearances and the fight to justify what they claimed were unjust job terminations have paid off for hundreds of workers at the former Shop-Vac Corp., the wet/dry vacuum manufacturer in Williamsport.

This week, U.S. Middle District Court President Judge Matthew W. Brann approved a $1 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by the 425 workers who said the company violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) and were improperly phased out when the company on Reach Road ceased operating in mid-September of 2020.

The settlement is with Great Star, which purchased Shop-Vac Corp.’s assets.

In Brann’s order, it said that if the settlement is not approved, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) would have been “complicated, protracted, and expensive for both parties.”

Brann found the settlement, reached through investigation and mediation by the parties, was favorable to class members and well within the range of reasonableness given the uncertainty of plaintiff’s ability to establish liability and to recover against Great Star. Great Star hired 206 of the workers back at the factory on Reach Road.

The settlement agreement was negotiated at arm’s length by experienced counsel and in good faith, is fair, equitable, and in the best interest of the parties, Brann stated.

It ends the saga for about 425 workers, many of whom when told they were losing their jobs without notice protested with signs outside of the Reach Road plant. The memos to the employees said they were being phased out by the family-owned company that ceased operations without advance notice on Sept. 15, 2020.

The class-action suit was then led by former Shop-Vac employee Candice Gair and later Rachael Berry, according to court documents.

At the time, Shop-Vac fought the suit arguing it was not required to give 60 days’ notice because it was a “faltering company.”

Gair amended her complaint to include Great Star when it bought Shop-Vac’s assets three months later, court documents showed.

Shop-Vac was no longer a part of the case in March 2023, as it was dissolving and had no assets.

The Great Star employees who were rehired signed an agreement that any disputes by employees have to go to arbitration.

When the class-action status for litigation was approved, Brann designated Gair to represent anyone such as herself who were not rehired and Berry for those such as herself who were rehired and signed the arbitration agreement.

In the order, Brann declared:

Class representative service payments are awarded to Gair and Berry in the amount of $12,500 each.

Class counsel is awarded its expenses, including the cost of the settlement administrator, which will be paid from the settlement amount in accordance with the terms of the settlement agreement, he said.

Class counsel is awarded its fees of one-third of the settlement amount, which are net of the class counsel’s expense and the class representative service payments.

There was an individual who opted out of the class action suit, court documents said.

The net settlement amount shall be distributed as follows, with settlement class members assigned to one of the three groups below:

Settlement class members whom Great Star did not hire, distribution will be based upon each individual settlement class member’s (a) average monthly gross wages or salary and any benefits under any employee benefit plan, and (b) his or her hire date, notice date, and termination date, based on the defendant’s records, on a pro-rata basis.

For settlement class members whom Shop-Vac Corporation terminated before Dec. 24, 2020, and whom Great Star hired, distribution based upon each settlement class members’ (a) average monthly gross wages or salary and any benefits under any employee benefit plan, and (b) his or her hire date, notice date and termination date, based on defendant’s records, on a pro-rata basis with an adjustment for additional legal risk.

For settlement class members whom Shop-Vac Corporation employed through Dec. 24, 2020, and whom Great Star hired, distribution will be based on a fixed amount per capita to account for additional legal risk.

Starting at $3.69/week.

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