Company Settles DOJ Lawsuit For Lost Wages After Plant Close

By Erik Gunn, the Wisconsin Examiner

Aug. 19, 2021

As many as 140 former employees of a Merrill factory that made windows and doors will share in more than $650,000 to compensate them for the wages they lost when the company shut down in December 2019 without notice.

Attorney General Josh Kaul announced on Thursday that the Department of Justice had settled a lawsuit that it filed in February against SEMCO Inc. The lawsuit charged that SEMCO broke the state’s business closing law when it failed to file a plant closing notice and notify employees 60 days in advance of its shutdown on Dec. 31, 2019.

“When an employer fails to give employees proper notice of a business closing, the negative impact of the lost jobs is compounded by the effects on families and communities,” said Amy Pechacek, secretary-designee for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), in a statement.

SEMCO has sent checks to eligible former SEMCO employees, according to DOJ, with the amounts calculated by DWD based on their wages. The settlement requires DOJ to attempt to redeliver any returned check during the 90 days after they were mailed, and to report to DWD on completed payments from the settlement.

At the time DOJ filed the lawsuit, a spokesperson said the agency had filed nine such suits since 2015.

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