Laid-off Jerritt workers file suit
By ADELLA HARDING - Mining Quarterly editor
Published: Monday, July 20, 2009 1:58 PM CDT
ELKO— A class action lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Renoasking the court to help laid-off employees of the Jerritt Canyon Minein Elko County recoup unpaid severance pay and cover unpaid medicalbills.
The lawsuit is on behalf of the 400 workers who losttheir jobs a year ago when Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. suddenly shut downthe gold mine operated by subsidiary Queenstake Resources USA.
Queenstakepaid employees half of their promised severance pay after the shutdown,but they haven’t received the rest of the pay, and Queenstake hasn’tcovered medical bills, attorney Travis Gerber of Elko said today.
“The most grievous problem is the many families with major medical bills. This was a major crisis for them,” he said.Gerbersaid the laid-off employees waited a year from the August 2008 mineclosure to file in hopes Queenstake would cover the back pay andmedical bills, as the company assured them it would do ahead of payingother debts.
“They were promised priority,” said Gerber, who is working with labor lawyer Mark Thierman of Reno on the court action.
Thelawsuit filed last Friday also seeks to foreclose a lien, which will befiled against the properties and assets of the gold mine 50 miles northof Elko.
The former employees filed their lawsuit the same weekthat contractor Golden Eagle International filed an amended action inElko District Court against Yukon-Nevada and Queenstake to tie in witha lien that contractor filed against the companies.
Gerber saidthe laid-off employees had expected Queenstake to begin payingseverance and medical bills first after Queenstake reached an agreementwith the first group of lien claimants against the company this spring.
Thatagreement called for Queenstake to make monthly payments over sixmonths to contractors, vendors and suppliers, and Queenstake made onepayment, Gerber said.The five formeremployees whose names lead the lawsuit include Kurt Knudsen, DonaldCapp, Larry Moon, Steve Volkert and Paul Dyer.
The lawsuitstates that Queenstake failed to pay severance pay mandated underfederal law, failed to pay medical claims under the medical benefitplan, failed to pay 401(k) withholdings to the pension trust fund andfailed to pay some wages for hours worked during the last week ofemployment.
“We’re hoping for a speedy resolution to this,” Gerber said.
“Basically,we have always intended to pay the employees’ severance and medicalwhen we have the funds to do it. We paid the first half last year andwill pay the remainder as soon as we can,” Yukon-Nevada Chief OperatingOfficer Graham Dickson said today.
“We’re doing our best,” he said.
Meanwhile,Queenstake is awaiting word from the Nevada Division of EnvironmentalProtection for permission to resume operation of the mill at JerrittCanyon that NDEP shut down May 30 when the company failed to installmercury-emission controls by the May 30 deadline.
Yukon-Nevadareported last week that the equipment was being installed andQueenstake was in negotiations with NDEP for the go-ahead to processstockpiles of gold ore at the site.
The stockpiles remainedafter the mine closure last August, including ore from Newmont MiningCorp. operations that Jerritt Canyon was toll milling for Newmont.Yukon-Nevada processed ore for less than two months before the latestshutdown.
NDEP had given Queenstake permission in late March toresume mill operations contingent on installation of the mercuryemission controls.