Doral Arrowood workers to receive wages owed following firing without legal 90-day notice

State Sen. Shelley Mayer announced the settlement - meant to right a wrong after the employees of Doral Arrowwood in Rye Brook were terminated without being given the legally required 90 days' notice under the state's WARN Act.

News 12 Staff

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Oct 27, 2021, 9:48 PM

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Updated 1,150 days ago

A total of 250 workers who were fired without a legal 90-day notice are now getting the wages they are owed.

State Sen. Shelley Mayer announced the settlement - meant to right a wrong after the employees of Doral Arrowwood in Rye Brook were terminated without being given the legally required 90 days' notice under the state's WARN Act.

Workers were given termination letters on Christmas Eve 2019.

"I opened it up thinking it was a bonus or something, and it was a letter saying we were being terminated in about two weeks," says former employee Jhony Muriel.

Muriel says he was shocked. He worked for the hotel as a bartender and supervisor for 30 years. The pandemic started months later making work hard to come by.

"I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to believe," he says.

The attorney general's office was able to settle with the hotel's lenders, which were found responsible for paying the workers the 60 days in wages they were owed.

Sen. Mayer is now looking to strengthen the WARN Act, sponsoring a bill signed into law that requires the chief local elected official be notified of major layoffs like this.

She also wants to guarantee workers a week of severance for every year of work.

"In my belief is that people who work a very long time are entitled to some recognition when they are discharged," says Mayer.

Payments from the settlement have already started going out to former employees and average between $6,000 to $15,000 per person.