Freehold Christmas Tree Shop employees say they never received final paycheck or bonuses
Workers at the Freehold store are frustrated as they continue to wait for the money they are owed.
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Christmas Tree Shop employees in Freehold say they never received their final paycheck or the bonuses they were promised.
Weeks after Christmas Tree Shops across the country closed their doors for good, workers at the Freehold store are frustrated as they continue to wait for the money they are owed.
"Obviously we are all frustrated because we had to go through bankruptcy and we lost our job, and because we had to fight for our money and what's owed to us,” said Freehold store manager Trish Falzini. "We were also told we would receive a retention bonus, which we felt like we are entitled to earn."
Christmas Tree Shops filed for bankruptcy back in May. What was initially supposed to be the closure of 10 stores turned into all 82 locations after the company defaulted on a $45 million bankruptcy loan.
"They made that decision to default. We didn't. We were here working hard,” said employee Nick J.
The company then went into liquidation. Aug. 12 was the last day the Freehold store was open. This came as a surprise to Falzini and other managers, who tell News 12 that they were supposed to spend another few days getting the store in order.
“I received a phone call that the liquidation company Hilco was taking over at that point and to not return to work,” said Nick J.
Workers say that management is now blocking paychecks from going through to salary employees because Hilco Global and Christmas Tree Shop cannot reach an agreement.
Falzini says while hourly workers have been paid, the payments have not been done correctly.
"They were missing time, they were missing hours, they were missing personal time or vacation time,” said Nick J.
On Aug. 17, a spokesperson for Hilco Global told News 12 that they are “committed to getting salaried store managers paid as soon as possible."
News 12 reached out to the company again on Monday.
Hilco Global gave News 12 the following statement:
“We funded the amounts required by the court to the company -- and that we said publicly we would fund to hourly employees. We had and have no control from there, but are aware that employees have called stating that there were errors...They should reach out to the chapter 7 trustee to address further issues, as we do not have access to or control over the records."
