Barneys Bankruptcy Update: No Severance Pay For Some Employees Amid Layoffs

After Barney announced that was laying off about 800 employees amid its bankruptcy filing and sale of its assets to Authentic Brands Group, the retailer has reportedly stuck some workers without vacation or severance pay.

Barneys let employees go on Nov. 6 from its Fifth Avenue headquarters, without any payment for their unused vacation days or severance pay if they worked for the company for less than two years, sources told the New York Post.

“A lot of people didn’t take their vacation days because they were trying to save the company,” one former executive told the news outlet. “It’s really abysmal how the employees were treated.”

Employees that did receive severance pay were reportedly limited to one week’s pay for every two years worked at Barneys – capped at five weeks.

Authentic Brands Group bought Barneys for $271.4 million and reportedly is not involved in the winddown process of the retailer. Barneys filed for bankruptcy in August and was purchased by Authentic Brands Group in November.

Customers also were only given seven-day notice that gift cards would only be honored until Nov. 7. The deadline was set by a bankruptcy judge, giving an unusually short notice to honoring the gift cards by Barneys.