Workers who lost their jobs when Stella D'oro Biscuit Co. shuttered its Bronx plant last year could get millions in back pay and benefits as a result of a recent decision handed down by the National Labor Relations Board.
The 2-1 ruling by a three-member panel affirmed the June 2009 decision of an administrative law judge, which stated that Stella D'oro violated federal labor law when it refused to furnish detailed financial statements to the workers' union to back up claims that it needed contract concessions in order to survive. The company's “unlawful refusal to provide the union with requested relevant information precluded a lawful bargaining impasse,” the majority wrote in its decision.
The ruling confirms that the 136 workers were driven to embark on a yearlong strike by the company, and orders Stella D'oro to fork over back pay, with interest, as well as benefits for the two-month period after the workers offered to return to the job in May 2009, and before the company took them back in July.
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