Essendant, a rebranded century-old wholesale office supply company, is laying off nearly 1,300 employees across six states, winding down operations and preparing to close its doors for good.
It may also be breaking Illinois employment law in the process, by allegedly terminating hundreds of workers without the full 60-day notice required under the state’s WARN Act. The state has already launched an investigation into Essendant’s abrupt layoffs last month, which took place five weeks earlier than planned.
“The Illinois Department of Labor received a complaint and the department is investigating,” agency spokesperson Paul Cicchini said Friday.
Formerly known as United Stationers, the business grew over decades from a small family-owned Chicago store into the nation’s largest independent wholesaler of office products. But the company, which changed its name to Essendant in 2015, has struggled in recent years under private equity ownership, amid a postpandemic shift toward remote and hybrid work.
After a failed effort last year to transform the business model from office products to cleaning supplies, Essendant issued a WARN notice on Aug. 3 that it was closing its Lincolnshire headquarters and a Carol Stream distribution center, laying off 510 and 134 employees, respectively.
The notice said it expected to terminate employment on or after Oct. 3. But on Aug. 27, the company summarily dismissed hundreds of employees, mostly from the Lincolnshire headquarters, in a mass video...
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