UArts faculty appear in court due to class-action lawsuit on unfair labor practice charges
PHILADELPHIA - After the University of the Arts announced its closing a month ago, faculty and staff appeared in U.S. court today for a hearing over a class-action lawsuit brought by the UArts Employee Union over the federal WARN Act.
The union claims the school didn't give the required notice to employees or pay them for it.
Now, 704 former staff and faculty of the now-shuttered University of the Arts are still trying to find out if they will be paid for their work after the abrupt closure last month.
A morning proceeding at the United States Courthouse on Wednesday left many looming questions for impacted faculty and staff.
"All artists, in general, whether they are employees of the university or not, are some of the most precarious employees that there are," said attorney Allen Hancock. "For them to be treated in such a manner is pretty hard to take."
UArts students, staff still in dark on next steps ahead of Friday closure; City Council investigates
The University of the Arts students, staff and faculty members are still in the dark about next steps though the school will officially close Friday. City Council is looking into the abrupt closing meanwhile, the United Academics of Philadelphia plans to meet with prospective teach-out partners Thursday,
On Wednesday, in a courtroom without cameras allowed, attorneys representing the workers went before a federal judge to discuss the filings against UArts, which include unfair labor practice charges and a violation of the federal WARN Act.
"Which provides that if you employ 100 people or more, and you’re laying off 10 percent or more of the workforce, then you have to provide at least 60 days written notice of the closure to the employees," stated attorney Eric Lechtzin.
However, UArts workers were only given a week’s notice.
"They were not paid for work that they had done," said Bradley Philbert, Executive VP of United Academics of Philadelphia Union. "The fact that the university closed right after graduation meant that a lot of people were put into a position where they don’t know whether they will get paid."
The attorney for the university stated budget issues proved to be a difficult factor in the decision to abruptly shut the school down, adding it's the school's intention to pay their workers but not before securing the necessary financing.
"We really want to know what happened. Money would be nice obviously, but we wanna know why we lost our jobs," said former staff member Charis Duke. "The university dumped over 600 arts professionals into the job market on the same day, and Philadelphia can’t possibly absorb that. So for those of us who aren’t in a position to relocate, where are we gonna find a job?"
The attorney representing the University of the Arts did not give a comment outside the courthouse Wednesday morning.
FOX 29 reached out to the Littler Mendelson firm for comment on the proceedings and have not heard back.
The next hearing is set for August 12th.
As far as word on whether the more than 700 workers will be paid, that’s still up in the air. The union, however, says they are still in the fight.