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Former Arrow Trucking Employees to Get Back Pay

It looks like nearly 600 former Arrow Trucking Co. employees will be getting an early Christmas present this year, if a proposal to distribute $2 million in back wages and benefits goes through.

The Tulsa, Okla.-based flatbed carrier made headlines all over the country when it shut down abruptly right before Christmas last year, leaving many drivers stranded. The company filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation petition Jan. 8.

The shutdown violated the federal Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies employing more than 100 people to give each employee at least 60 days' written notice of a plant closing and firings. Failure to provide the notice can make employers liable for 60 days of wages per employee, the law says.

The Tulsa World reports that If no objections are filed to the proposed distribution within the next three weeks and it is approved by the bankruptcy court, 572 former employees will receive an average distribution of nearly $3,500.

66 claims are entitled to the maximum $10,950 allowed in priority wage claims. They will get two-thirds of their claim in the proposed initial distribution next month. The smallest proposed interim distribution to an employee will be $293.68, court records say.

The bankruptcy trustee estimates Arrow's assets at $8.55 million and liabilities at $98.97 million.

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