[Updated] South Windsor Officials: ClearEdge Failed to Give Proper Notice of Mass Layoff

[Updated] ClearEdge spokesperson Jennifer Sager said in an e-mail to Patch that the company's layoffs were "in full compliance with all legal requirements."

Sager said that the layoffs were a result of a restructuring "to position our company for profitable growth and make customers our top priority. Moving forward, we will be limiting our focus to opportunities in the stationary fuel cell business, in alignment with the new structure and size of the company.

"This restructuring was difficult, but necessary to maintain the health of the organization and our leadership position as the most experienced innovator in the stationary fuel cell industry."

Sager said that the company plans to continue to operate in Connecticut - though it did not specify South Windsor - as well as in Oregon and California.

"Having operations on both coasts strengthens our ability to serve customers and we plan to maintain those facilities," Sager wrote in an e-mail.

[Original Story] South Windsor town officials are questioning whether ClearEdge Power Corporation violated federal law when it conducted a mass layoff in South Windsor on March 14 and 15.

ClearEdge, an Oregon-based fuel cell company, laid off 39 percent of its workforce nationwide last week, including between 100 to 170 employees in South Windsor at 195 Governor's Highway, the former location of UTC Power.

The layoffs occurred just one month after ClearEdge acquired UTC Power.

But Mayor Tom Delnicki and Town Manager Matthew Galligan said that ClearEdge may have violated the WARN act, a federal law that requires employers with over 100 employees to give 60 days notice of a mass layoff to employees' representatives, the local chief elected official, and a designated state representative known as a rapid response coordinator.

At the South Windsor Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Delnicki said that he received a letter on March 15 stating that the mass layoff would occur on March 14. The letter, which is signed by Jennifer Adamy, ClearEdge’s vice president, secretary and general counsel, is dated March 14.

“They went in there with a meat axe and laid off [the employees],” Delnicki said.

Galligan said that the first time he heard of the mass layoff was from a reporter who asked him about it when Galligan was providing testimony at the state Capitol.

“I never got a letter; that’s a problem for me,” said Galligan, who added that had he known in advance, he might have been able to do something to prevent at least some of the layoffs from happening.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Delinicki echoed Galligan's desire to have been given the opportunity to try and prevent the layoffs from taking place.

According to Nancy Steffens, a Connecticut Department of Labor spokesperson, the state's rapid response unit also received the layoff notice on March 15, the day after the mass layoff took place.

Steffens said that because it's an issue of federal law at issue, the state DOL would not be the agency to "protest that the letter was not sent in a timely manner."

To make matters worse, Galligan said that he heard that ClearEdge was attempting to reduce the time on the lease remaining at the South Windsor location, which still has over 100 employees working there.

“This doesn’t pass the smell test,” Delnicki said.

While the town’s top elected official wasn’t notified of the layoff before it happened, Chief of Police Matthew Reed was given some notice that 170 ClearEdge employees in South Windsor would be let go on March 14.

There was a police presence when the layoffs occurred, said Reed, noting that it is typical for employers to let police know in advance of layoffs for security purposes.

After the Town Council’s meeting on Wednesday, Galligan said that the layoffs took place even though just several weeks ago ClearEdge had been negotiating with him about having a fuel cell installed at South Windsor High School.

Galligan said that during the negotiations, he asked what ClearEdge intended to do concerning its South Windsor employees.

“They never gave me any indication that they were going to lay off people,” Galligan said. “Meanwhile, they are trying to do business with me.”

Galligan said that he was going to look into filing a complaint concerning the matter.

The town, and the possibly aggrieved employees, may not have much redress, however. According to the federal Department of Labor’s website, the DOL “has no enforcement role in seeking damages for workers who did not receive adequate notice of a layoff or received no notice at all. However, they can assist workers in finding a new job or learning about training opportunities that are available.”

The federal law requiring notice, known as the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, does provide for less than 60 days notice when the layoffs resulted from closure of a faltering company, unforeseeable business circumstances, or natural disaster, according to the DOL website.

ClearEdge announced on March 18 that it had raised $36 million in equity financing. The Hartford Business Journal reported that the money would not be used to reverse the layoffs.