In The News

Still hope for Arrow Trucking employees to recoup back wages

For months now, former drivers and employees for Tulsa-based Arrow Trucking have been waiting patiently to find out whether there will be any money left over to pay them what they are owed.

Recently, Patrick J. Malloy III, the appointed bankruptcy trustee for Arrow Trucking, told Land Line that “clearly there will be substantial payments to wage earners.” This would be a welcome relief for the more than 1,000 former drivers and employees.

While the deadline to file wage claims with the bankruptcy court has ended, Malloy is pursuing another avenue for former employees to be compensated.

According to court documents filed in early July, Malloy has requested a court order stating that Arrow Trucking violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act by failing to give former employees at least 60 days’ notice of a plant closing and/or mass layoffs. The penalty for violations of the WARN act is 60 days of “back wages.”

Malloy stated that a separate 90-day time period, which would put the deadline in October, should be allowed for former employees to file WARN Act claims, giving them “priority claim” treatment with damages not to exceed $10,950. He has asked that a mailing be sent out to former employees “advising them of their rights under the Act and affording them the right to either file original claims or amend their existing claims to include WARN Act damages.”

In mid-June, a judge in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in Tulsa granted Malloy’s motion to consolidate Arrow Truck Leasing and Arrow Truck Real Estate with Arrow Trucking Co. Several months ago, the parent company, Megan Corp., was also consolidated into the bankruptcy estate.

“According to my calculations these numbers represent in excess of $2.8 million in actual recoveries (real estate, public auctions) and the realistic potential of approximately $4.3 million in total recoveries in a period of approximately five months,” Malloy wrote in an e-mail to Land Line.

Many drivers were under loads when they suddenly found themselves without jobs after the company collapsed on December 22, 2009. Some former employees had multiple paychecks bounce and had money taken out of their checks for insurance and other deductions, which was never forwarded on to the proper entities.

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