CHICAGO, April 17 (UPI) -- Fired employees of embattled auditing firm Arthur Andersen Wednesday filed a class action suit charging their layoffs violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court by Nancy Roquet, who was terminated last week, on behalf of 7,000 colleagues based on the law, which was designed to protect blue-collar employees from sudden plant closings.
The suit seeks damages in the millions and to force Andersen to pay the difference between the severance axed employees received and 60 days pay. It also asks the court to order the company not to destroy personnel records.
However, Stephen Presser, a professor of business law at Northwestern University, told Crain's Chicago Business the plaintiffs will be hard-pressed to prevail since the law exempts companies that suffer an unexpected action outside their control.
Andersen's problems began with the failure of energy giant Enron. Andersen was Enron's auditor but allowed questionable accounting practices that led to the company's failure last year. Since then, the federal government has indicted Andersen for obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to Enron's failure.
Attorneys for Roquet, an executive assistant who had worked for Andersen for just three months, argue, however, the indictment is merely proof of the ineptitude of Andersen management.
The suit is the latest in a rising tide of litigation against the accounting firm, which has lost a large number of high profile clients since the Enron debacle was revealed.
