Oct 6 (Reuters) - Bankrupt miner Patriot Coal Corp
PATAQ.PK , which is in the midst of auctioning off its assets,
has issued a new WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act) notice to its employees.
The WARN notice is mandated by U.S. labor law and requires
companies with 100 or more employees to provide 60 days advance
notification of plant closings and mass layoffs.
Patriot Coal expects to lay off more than 2,000 workers in
West Virginia, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The new WARN notice from Patriot Coal extended the period
from the original WARN notice issued on Aug. 3, 2015, because of
a delay in Patriot's bankruptcy case. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nPn4sjLyq
The Scott Depot, West Virginia-based miner, which went
bankrupt in May less than 18 months after emerging from Chapter
11, plans to sell a substantial majority of its assets to
Blackhawk Mining LLC and the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund
(VCLF). With the delay in the bankruptcy case, the closing date
of the transaction has been pushed back from Oct. 9 to Oct. 23,
2015.
Patriot said it expects a majority of Patriot employees at
its mining operations will be offered employment if the sale is
completed.
Last month, the company asked a U.S. judge to allow it to
end its obligations towards 969 non-union retirees, saying no
potential buyer of its assets would agree to take on the cost.
Patriot has also asked the judge to allow it to reject its
collective bargaining agreement with the United Mine Workers of
America, which has been negotiating with Blackhawk to maintain
some benefits.
The case is Patriot Coal Corp, U.S. Bankruptcy Court,
Eastern District of Virginia, No. 15-32450.