Judge orders $1.5 million in back pay for former Signature Room workers
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Former employees of the Signature Room atop the former John Hancock building will split more than $1.5 million in back pay, after a federal judge ruled the owners of the iconic restaurant and lounge failed to give workers proper notice when the business abruptly closed in September.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber on March 14 ordered Infusion Management Group, which operated the Signature Room, to pay $1,520,762.75 in back pay to 140 former employees, and $27,725 in attorney's fees in the case.
UNITE HERE Local 1, the union representing Signature Room workers, sued Infusion Management in October, claiming Infusion violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) by failing to provide 60 days written notice of the mass layoffs that resulted from abruptly closing the restaurant and lounge on Sept. 28.
Their lawsuit sought 60 days' worth of back pay, health insurance coverage, and other benefits that they lost due to the closure. All 140 employees will now receive that back pay and benefits.
No notice was given to the Signature Room employees represented by the union. The union said the vast majority of laid off workers were people of color, who worked as cooks, servers, bartenders, barbacks, concierges, housekeeping attendants, bussers, and expeditors. One-third of them had worked there for at least 15 years, and eight of them had been their 30 years.
They were at work one day, and then jobless the next.
"This is a huge win for us," said former Signature Room employee Ronald Gorny. "We're getting justice."
Gorny worked as a server at the Signature Room for 23 years.
To celebrate Thursday, the workers enjoyed cake outside the Hancock Center – with an image of the judgment order printed on the frosting, and the words, "Justice is served."
"It would have been real easy for the notice to be given, and we could have prepared to land on our feet," said Gorny.
The iconic restaurant, on the 95th floor of the former Hancock Center, abruptly closed on Sept. 28, 2023.
"I was in disbelief, you know?" said Gorny. "It's really a process you go through in something like this." Everybody has had challenges with it; all of our co-workers - myself included."
Staffers learned about the closing via email, and with a letter posted in the lobby. It said due to severe economic hardship following the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant was closing permanently.
There had been a restaurant in the space as far back as 1970, and the Signature Room under that name and incarnation had opened in 1993.
Jim P'Pool worked as a server at the Signature Room for 17 years. He saw the judgment as a "wonderful step in the right direction."
"I think what they did to us was absolutely horrific," P'Pool said. "I never thought I'd be looking for another job at my age. I've got five years to go before I retire."
Fortunately, P'Pool has landed on his feet, with a new job at the Union League Club of Chicago. But others have not been so lucky, living off savings and unemployment.
