Dean & DeLuca workers fuming
Dean & DeLuca, known for introducing ultrafancy food to the masses, apparently can’t afford to pay its recently laidoff workers.
The highend grocery company, which has not responded to requests for comment, closed several locations nationwide in July because of outstanding debts, the New York Times reported. Now, former employees of the St. Helena market — Dean & DeLuca’s sole California outpost — say the company is withholding their final pay
Judy Snell organizes candies and truffles in a display case at Dean & DeLuca in St. Helena in 2013. The cafe has closed, and workers say they have not received final paychecks.
checks, as they contemplate a lawsuit.
Employees of the St. Helena location say they received seven days’ notice that the store would close on July 5. Under California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, companies with at least 75 employees must provide 60 days’ notice of layoffs, with limited exceptions when a business is seeking financing to avert a closure.
St. Helena workers received their first WARN Act notice on June 27, saying they would stay on payroll until Aug. 27 despite the closure. On July 26,
employees received a “revised notification” explaining they would receive no such pay because Dean & DeLuca is “a faltering company.”
While the federal WARN Act includes an exemption for “unforeseen business circumstances,” California’s does not, according to an analysis by the Fenwick & West law firm.
“Dean & DeLuca previously had sufficient working capital to continue to fund payroll expenses. However ... the source of this working capital has stopped funding Dean & DeLuca’s operations,” the letter to workers stated, going on to say that Dean & DeLuca unsuccessfully tried to sell the company.
As a result, former St. Helena workers say, Dean & DeLuca has paid them only for the first three days of July, not the full 60 days required by law.
“We were promised something, and nothing was given,” said Raul Calle, the former kitchen manager.
In 2014, Dean & DeLuca had more than 40 markets and cafes across the country. Recent closures that also include locations in New York and Washington leave the company with just four: two in New York and two in Hawaii. The Hawaii locations remain open, but repeated phone calls to the remaining New York spots, including its flagship store, have gone unanswered.
Bryan Villa, the shipping and receiving supervisor for Dean & DeLuca in St. Helena, said he started noticing problems two years ago, when the company signed sponsorship deals with a PGA golf tournament in Texas and the U.S. Open tennis championship in New York.
That’s when Villa began receiving pastdue invoices from vendors, including the Model Bakery and Napa Soap Company of St. Helena, and Hobbs’ Applewood Smoked Meats of Richmond, which say Dean & DeLuca still owes them money.
Sarah Mitchell Hansen of the Model Bakery said her business is owed roughly $30,000. “It’s hard,” she said. “It’s our bottom line.”
As vendors pulled their products, Dean & DeLuca’s oncebountiful shelves grew barren.
“We used to have four or five bakeries deliver fresh bread and pastries every morning. By the end, we had none,” Villa said.
He said it’s unfair that he and other St. Helena workers aren’t getting paid, particularly when they dealt directly with angry, unpaid vendors for months.
“We were there. We were receiving the phone calls, getting the threats. We had to hire security,” Villa said. “You’d think (the company would) appreciate what we did.”
Calle said many of his 41 former colleagues in St. Helena assumed they would receive those final paychecks and took some time off, only to return and realize their financial security was gone. Now, he is worried the promised payout of vacation time will disappear as well. California’s version of the WARN Act requires payment of benefits.
Former Dean & DeLuca employees across the country said they are dealing with similar situations. Will McCormack, most recently the chef and general manager at the Washington location, said he’s consulted lawyers about the WARN Act. He fears that Dean & DeLuca may have found an exception in the law.
“In a nutshell, we got outlawyered,” McCormack said. “I know business is business, but did they have to be so careless, so callous?”