Workers question backdated payment

By Mark Millican

CHATSWORTH — Randy Crump was shaking visibly when he testified during a hearing in Murray County Magistrate Court on Tuesday about not getting paid for work at R&R; Textiles in Eton.

“I worked faithfully for you,” he said to part-owner Rob Pickens, who was sitting directly across the table from him with Pickens’ attorney, Jonathan Bledsoe, with Minor, Bell & Neal. “The reason I’m mad is that you should’ve come and let us know what’s going on. We’re a family and we gave you respect. You should have given us respect back!”

Crump has worked at R&R; for two years as their receiving department manager and truck driver. He takes medications to counteract manic depression and bipolar disorder, said his wife Tammy. She has worked at R&R; for five years, and takes medication for high cholesterol and high blood pressure. She said their insurance was canceled on Feb. 1 as part of the separation from the company, and her husband had been “without his meds” for four days. Both — along with 32 other hourly employees and eight salaried employees — received notices on Friday saying R&R; would close that day.

Employees said they were paid for the week before, but part of the notice said their release from the company would be backdated one week prior — to Jan. 23 — because the company did not have the money to pay them for their last week. On Friday, salaried employees were told by Pickens their separation would be backdated to Jan. 15, meaning they would not receive two weeks’ pay.

Reese Thomas Jr. is a salaried employee at the business his father, Reese Thomas Sr., started in 1983 in Chicago with Pickens. The company grew and branched into outlets at Portland, Ore., and Chatsworth. It is also partially owned by Thomas Sr. and David Owens. Thomas Jr. decided to request a hearing before Judge Bryant Cochran when he said Georgia Department of Labor personnel in Dalton told him they could not pay unemployment benefits because of the backdating and that such an action was illegal.

Tuesday afternoon, Cochran said Dalton businessman Shelby Peeples told him he was a close personal friend of the senior Thomas and would purchase part of the company’s inventory and see that payroll would be met. But it was unclear if salaried employees would be included in that arrangement, said Thomas Jr.

Production/plant manager Donald Welch, a salaried employee who was also released, said he signed the separation papers with great misgivings.

“I informed David (Owens) that this was not right,” he said at the hearing. “Rob (Pickens) was standing right there when I said it. David told Rob there was no money (to pay employees) and that was why (the notices) were being backdated. There was no one else to sign the papers. I knew it wasn’t right. I didn’t know it was illegal until I went to the Department of Labor.”

Welch said he was “under duress” and that the hourly employees would not have gotten paid without his signature. He said no one else in management would sign the separation notices.

“All of us have understood the financial difficulties of the company, and we even offered part of our salaries to help out, but he denied it,” he said while looking at Pickens. “You couldn’t take part of our money, but now you’ve taken all of it!”

Pickens said the “dismissal process” was “part of the economic downturn.”

He explained the company was divided into a marine market and automotive market, and said “a fast reduction in sales began in October” and that “in late November we began negotiating to sell the automotive division.” Those documents were being prepared during the December holidays, Pickens explained, but he learned on Jan. 16 that “the bank had frozen our working capital line of credit.”

He said there was also an opportunity to sell the marine division, and that he wanted to keep the employees, but that the bank refused on Wednesday of last week to release any funds to pay employees.

“I can’t understand why we couldn’t get the funding for payroll,” he said. “We were working on a way to pay both hourly (employees) and the management team their back pay, but then we came in Friday and let everybody go.”

Bledsoe said Pickens displayed “no criminal intent” in his actions, and that employees knew the company was doing poorly.

“If we can get financing, we will continue to try and help them,” Pickens said.

Peeples, who said he agreed to work with R&R; on inventory, was concerned that their management would be maligned through coverage of the hearing.

“Those are some of the best people I’ve ever known,” he said of Pickens and Thomas Sr. “They’re honest, hard-working people who are losing their company because of the economy, through no fault of theirs. They’re doing everything they can to help their employees.”

Bledsoe did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday.