FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Hundreds of Bitwise employees and their families begin the month without a paycheck and questioning if they'll ever return to work.
Just days after bounced payments by the Fresno-based company, employees are working to take legal action.
All avenues are still being explored at this point.
First and foremost, Bitwise could have broken a law by not alerting employees and the city of furloughs 60 days in advance.
Roger Bonakdar assembled a team of lawyers to represent the 100 employees he said had already approached them.
The concerning signs for the 300 employees of Bitwise Industries came last Friday when they were told that instead of direct deposits they would instead get paper checks.
When those checks started bouncing, many employees started reaching out to employment attorneys, including Bonakdar.
"You don't bounce people's paychecks, because you're going to furlough them," said Bonakdar. "You don't switch your payroll process from automatic deposit to paper checks and enterprise of that size unless you are trying to buy time."
The company sent out an email on Memorial Day, when offices were closed, notifying them that they were furloughed effective immediately and those paper checks may not clear.
Bonakdar said the way the CEOs have handled the furloughs leads him to believe the company will soon be no more.
"They're calling it a furlough, but that is just smoke and mirrors,' said Bonadkar. "This is very clearly a mass layoff."
Bonakdar...
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