According to the Associated Press, Michael and David Sullivan, Thomas Robinette and Jeremy Pennington filed their complaint last week in US District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Big Stone Gap against Justice’s Nine Mile Mining for a violation of the federal WARN Act.
Known formally as the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, WARN requires companies with 100 employees to provide a 60-day notice when a mass layoff is planned.
In the case of Justice, it let go 150 workers at its operations in Wise County by sending them home with no notice, according to the news service.
“They had a meeting at Mountain Empire Community College ... where 15 people were there to talk to three coal miners,” the group’s attorney Hugh O'Donnell told the Harlan Daily Enterprise.
O’Donnell has joined with Roanoke attorney Paul Beers to represent the group.
The four miners are asking to represent another 150 also discharged at the same time.
“The miners are seeking, under the WARN Act, damages for the 60 days of wages and benefits they didn’t get, which they would have gotten if they had been given notice,” O’Donnell said.
Billionaire and coal magnate Jim Justice, owner of Justice Energy, is reportedly worth $1.7 billion. Based in Roanoke, his operations are in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.
He has been at the receiving end of numerous lawsuits over the last few years – several just in the past few months – from business owners who have claimed Justice did not pay them for completed work.
Justice and his legal representatives have not made any public comment on the suit.
