Iowa-based Flexsteel has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of using the COVID-19 pandemic to collect millions in federal aid while newly installed executives enriched themselves and denied severance pay to hundreds of laid-off workers.
A federal judge has given the settlement preliminary approval, and notices have been sent to the attorneys general in states where the furniture maker operates. Postcard notices to the hundreds of former Flexsteel workers who can claim a share of the settlement proceeds will be mailed within a week.
Those notices inform the former Flexsteel employees of the settlement and state that each class member who does not opt out of the agreement will receive a share of the settlement proceeds. The individual shares will be calculated based on the individual workers’ years of Flexsteel employment and pay level.
The settlement includes $425,000 for the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Dorothy O’Brien and Kelsey Marquard of the Davenport law firm O’Brien & Marquard.
Flexsteel has denied the allegations in the lawsuit, and the settlement agreement itself specifies that it does not constitute an admission of any wrongdoing or liability. Company officials could not be reached for comment Monday.
As is normally the case with class-action lawsuit settlements, a website has been established to provide class members and others with information and documents related to the settlement.
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