G3K Workers are Owed Back Wages

http://www.vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/RH/20140515/NEWS02/705159922

By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — Workers at G3K Display Inc., are owed about three weeks of back wages in addition to losing their jobs and benefits that many of them had held for decades.

Close to 30 former employees of G3K Display Inc. — formerly Kiosko LLC — were briefed Wednesday by state employment and labor officials about their rights as displaced workers with the sudden closing of their North Springfield employer.

Many of the workers had been with Kiosko since the beginning, first with Smokeshire Woodworking, then Great Brook Furniture, then Kiosko Inc., which made retail store display cases and furniture.

The closing shocked employees who said they had come to work Friday and were told there was no money to pay them.

The closing came after partners in the New Jersey parent company was accused of fraud involving a $10 million loan.

MVC of Purchase, N.Y., an investment firm, agreed to loan the company $10 million at 13 percent interest in April. But it filed suit against G3K’s three partners in New Jersey last week, alleging a “sophisticated fraud.” A New Jersey court has put the company under the control of a receiver, Capstone Advisory Group of New York City.

One worker, Dale Ward, 57, of Saxtons River, an 18-year veteran of the company, said G3K tried to retrieve his last direct-deposit paycheck, but he successfully fought it. Other workers said they were not so lucky, and as a result they lost three weeks of wages.

Ward and others had nothing but praise for the Pennell family, which had founded Kiosko and its predecessors, Smokeshire and Great Brook, and ran the company until late 2011. At that time a controlling interest was sold to G3 Display of Hoboken, N.J.

About five weeks ago, G3 bought the remaining 49 percent of Kiosko from the Pennell family, the former employees said.

Hugh Pennell, who was Ward’s shop teacher at Springfield High School about 40 years ago, broke the news to employees Friday.

Kyle Franzoni, 37, of Springfield, project manager for the North Springfield firm, had worked for the company for a total of eight years, including a three-year stretch leading up to Friday’s announcement.

“I’m kind of in shock,” said Franzoni, who attended the meeting Wednesday with his two 10-year-old sons and the family’s dog.

Franzoni said the Pennells were just in as much shock as their former employees.

“We were doing business with large clients,” said Franzoni. “And then everything fell out. I’m kind of in shock.”

Franzoni said that the company, whose prototypes were mass-produced in China, was expanding in Asian markets.

“The Kiosko ownership before is in just as much shock. The Pennells, they weren’t prepared,” said Franzoni, adding that it was Andrew Pennell who broke the news to the employees last Friday.

State officials gave the employees a crash course in how to apply for unemployment insurance and how to make a claim for back wages and vacation pay, or for federally funded work training.

The overwhelming majority of the employees were men, and they stoically asked questions on applying for benefits and verifying their job searches.

Jessica Corliss of Perkinsville, who was the office manager and human resource director for G3K, said she has already received another job offer.

“I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about our production guys,” she said.

susan.smallheer

@rutlandherald.com