Former Toys R Us employees to get a total of $2 million severance

A group of 33,000 former Toys R Us employees are due to get a total of $2 million severance.

LEGO stockist Toys R Us closed down in the USA a year ago, with thousands of workers losing their jobs, many without severance pay. North Jersey reports that Judge Keith L. Phillips of the Eastern District of Virginia has approved a settlement as a result of a class action claim that the workers filed.

Ann Marie Reinhart Smith, a former Toys R Us employee, led the claim on behalf of all workers who lost their jobs at the toy retailer without severance pay.

“After being so loyal to the company, to be let go without our promised severance is disrespectful,” Reinhart Smith is reported to have said “We’re grateful we achieved this class-action settlement. It’s an important milestone for working families like mine who are so vulnerable to Wall Street’s greed.”

“After nearly a year, employees laid off by Toys R Us are finally getting something to show for their steadfast service,” said Jack Raisner, a partner in the law firm that represented the former employees, Outten & Golden LLP. “It’s a shame they aren’t getting more, but this settlement sends a message that employees deserve a place in the front of the line of creditors when businesses fail, and that is important to people who work in retail and their families.”

The settlement is part of the long-running Toys R Us bankruptcy case, which is seeing various interested parties seeking their share of what was left when the business collapsed.

Several former Toys R Us executives are aiming to relaunch the brand in the USA using the new company Tru Kids Inc.

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