Former Telltale Employee Takes Legal Action Following Mass Layoffs

Should have looked at the fine print

The company is broke, there’s little to sue for. Move on and spend your efforts looking for a new job.

Where does the money actually come from if you successfully sue a bankrupt company?

I hope the leaders get what’s coming to them!

Good luck with this, even in ca I’m guessing this won’t be easy given that this is a company that clearly cannot pay.

@gloom why do you say this? Did they somehow screw over their employees? Some leaders are bad but some will do anything to keep the lights on.

@Nehalem Telltale is a famously mismanaged company. The whole story they told about sales not being good enough to keep them afloat is absolute bull.

Honestly, this is fair. Especially if it was a very last minute ordeal. Screwing over nearly 300 of the employees.

@Dezzy Selling PCs, selling franchises, selling basically anything that is left.

While what Telltale did was wrong, I'm not sure you can get money out of an already bankrupt company.

@Nehalem Take a look at the stuff coming out of this. Looks like the management handled this terribly. Game devs are treated horribly by many studios, about time someone made a stand.

@TeslaChippie From what I've read they were pretty much running on empty. They were working hard and never considered that the company who was gonna keep them afloat would pull out. Which they did, after that with no back up plan, there was really only one choice. Sucks..... hope they can all find a job soon. I'm also curious as to where the money comes from if they do win the suit?

Just right too. In the UK if you are made redundant and the company doesn't have the funds then the government will act as statutory guarantor and pay redundant staff up to 12 weeks salary, notice pay, holiday pay and unpaid wages, and then the government will chase the funds off the company themselves. It is a great system that ensures jobless people get money asap and can move on with their lives.

Doesn't seem to be the case in USA so damn right those workers should sue.

@BumpkinRich I mostly hated the part where they were asked to leave within 30 minutes of their firing. It was pretty much "y'all fired, get out". Pretty cold considering these people were working so hard for them. At least give them a few hours to come to terms with it. They would have probably coped better had they done that.

@whanvee

Some companies are overly paranoid about retaliation. My last employer wouldn't even allow me into the lobby. I had to stand outside and wait for an HR rep to come out just to answer a question that they could have answered over the phone if they actually made that number available to employees.

@Dezzy
That is a really good question. maybe you get some bankruptcy shares?

When the bankruptcy happens, the bank try to recover all the assets that's include office, desks, computers, and etc. Which is why employees usually try to grab the things they wanted before leaving the company. Also bankruptcy usually wipe record of debt free quickly which is another mess when the employees is suing the company.

Which is why its important for employees to sue right away but... owners usually keep quiet about the lay off to prevent further losses. Also there are laws that prevent employees suing bankrupt companies.

So... yeah its an touchy subject now.

Good luck and more power to them. Now it's all about the distributation of the companies remaining assets. Surely they deserve a slice of that ever shrinking pie if Telltale broke employment rules.

The federal WARN Act permits 60 days' wages plus other benefits if there was a mass layoff or plant shutdown without notice.

If the company files bankruptcy, then each employee will be entitled to a priority claim for $12,850. That claim is paid after secured claims and the expenses of administering the case, but before tax claims and claims of general creditors.

If the company files Chapter 7 bankruptcy, then a trustee will be appointed to liquidate the company's assets and pay claims. In many instances, WARN claims will lead to very large class action claims that pay millions of dollars to the employee class. Taxing authorities and general trade creditors suffer because there is less or even no money left over to pay their claims.

So there is a point in filing these cases. Also, these suits are filed very quickly and then the plaintiffs' lawyer will wait to see if there is any money in the bankruptcy before proceeding with the case. Many times the cases are filed right away because the lawyer wants to be the first to file the case, so the court will appoint them class counsel.

This is all so sad. Tell Tale could have been a fun third party developer that made quirky games with a small dev team. They inexplicably decided to be a near AAA game company. We're going to miss out on potentially good games and nice people who have bills like the rest of us are going to be out of jobs.

Just goes to show you, doesn't matter if you have a crack team of developers, managers/upper management can destroy it all. Sadly the world is riddled with terrible managers.

@Nehalem Wait... what? Huh...? It’s plain as day that they deserve to rot. When you lay off masses of workers like this you are destroying lives. CEO’s love to make thick checks but as soon as it comes to caring about their own workers they act like they’re blind... large companies have, and never will see workers as valuable. They only see them as profit makers. So yes, they screwed up big time and they need to pay up for the responsibilities they incorrectly managed.

@Racthet916 Such matter is not like your friend owes you $20. It involves employment rights, social implications and repercussion.

@gloom yeah this was the kind of absolutist rhetoric I was pushing back on. This situation sucks no doubt but lives are not “destroyed” By most metrics this was hardly a large company where the management is many layers (and locations) removed so there is never any care for workers.

It could absolutely be that this management is one of the worst possible examples of how not to run a games company, but I have seen many counter examples to this as well (mostly outside this industry, but that is because I don’t know a ton of people who chose this industry but do know some)

The gaming industry is a mess though and glad I don’t work in it.

"A disgruntled former employee..." Is a horrible chocie of words for someone that in all likelihood was illegally laid off. If you was fired illegally you wouldn't call yourself "disgruntled" if you sued.

@Nehalem counter argument: all bosses go in the stockades

A former tailor takes action for the improvement of the challenges for the humans. The needful reactions and best essays are applied for the persons. The mixed item is done for the approval of the documents for the humans in this ambit and channel for the candidates.