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Star Tribune may not pay workers full severance
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The Star Tribune informed an unspecified number of former employees from among a group of 29 who left the company last summer and fall that they might not get their full severance allotments because of the company’s Jan. 15 bankruptcy.
An additional 14 employees who began receiving continuous severance payments before July 19 will have to put in bankruptcy claims as creditors to receive any remaining money they are owed.
Separately, 42 more newsroom and other employees who left this month got full severance, either through lump-sum payments or continuous payments, under a company-requested motion that was approved by a federal bankruptcy judge last week.
A Star Tribune spokesman said about 600 employees have left the company since early 2007, most departing with severance packages that ranged to as much as 52 weeks of pay.
Newspaper revenues have dropped sharply nationwide.
Ben Taylor, a Star Tribune executive, said U.S. bankruptcy law limits to $10,950 the amount that can be paid to employees who are severed within six months of a bankruptcy filing. Any former employees who are still owed more than $10,950 must file claims as creditors with the bankruptcy court.
“If we owe a person $10,950 or less, we pay them in full,” Taylor said. “We are not required to pay the $10,950, but we were given the authority to do it … and we made the decision to pay.”
Graydon Royce, co-chairman of the newsroom union of about 275 workers, said, “It’s unfortunate that people who made a good-faith decision to depart and ease the company’s payroll burden are being rewarded in this manner.”
Meanwhile, Star Tribune Editor Nancy Barnes asked the paper’s St. Paul-based staff of nine people to move temporarily to the Minneapolis office while the company looks for less-expensive office space in the east metro area. The Star Tribune spends about $100,000 annually for rent in the Lowry Building in downtown St. Paul.
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