By Tim Dodson

July 14, 2019 - After a number of Southwest Virginia miners found themselves out of work with bounced paychecks, state officials are starting to mobilize resources to help those impacted by coal company Blackjewel LLC’s bankruptcy.

Gov. Ralph Northam said he’s “deeply concerned” about the impact the company’s woes are having on more than 450 Virginians.

“I have directed my administration to provide additional resources and support for displaced employees, and my team continues to closely monitor the situation. We stand ready to assist in any way possible,” Northam said in a news release.

The Virginia Employment Commission will waive the standard weeklong waiting period for unemployment benefits for affected employees, the release states. Overtime pay for Virginia Career Works representatives, who can help connect Blackjewel employees with job training and career opportunities, was also authorized.

The VEC is sending a Rapid Response team next week to Norton, St. Charles and Richlands. A team of local workforce development partners will meet with miners and provide information on ways to maintain an income and details on health insurance options, access to skills and training resources, signing up for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and more.

Blackjewel was the country’s sixth-largest coal producer in 2017, according to the federal government’s most recently released annual coal report, and the company said in court filings that it has about 1,700 employees across Kentucky, Virginia, Wyoming and West Virginia.

The company listed 10 facilities in Virginia in its bankruptcy filing and state data from last year counted 484 employed by Blackjewel and its associated companies in Virginia.

On July 1, the West Virginia-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows a company to restructure its debts while continuing to operate. In an affidavit, former CEO Jeff Hoops noted “adverse market conditions” and various liquidity issues.

As the company’s case started in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, confusion began to spread among employees as work halted at mining facilities and the company was unable to pay workers. Several employees told the Bristol Herald Courier that their most recent paycheck from the end of June bounced, and the amounts were “clawed back” from their accounts, leaving many with negative balances.

The court later approved $5 million in emergency financing, the terms of which restrict the loan for security measures, “essential firefighting personnel,” “professional fees” and “other essential emergency expenses.”

The company said in a statement Wednesday that part of that money “has allowed the company to bring back the first wave of employees who are crucial to ensuring the safety of its mines and equipment while it works towards a longer-term solution.”

The statement said 140 employees have returned to work across Blackjewel’s operations, but the company hasn’t specified how many are in Virginia.

The company has said employees who return to work will be paid for time worked prior to the bankruptcy filing.

“The company’s ability to bring more employees back to work is contingent upon its ability to secure additional financing, which remains the top priority for the management team,” the release states.

The company didn’t specifically respond to a request for comment about a timeline for when employees who have not returned to work can expect to be paid, but a representative pointed to a statement from July 5, which said that management is “doing everything we can to obtain financing to resume normal operations. Once this financing is obtained and operations are resumed, we plan to pay all prepetition amounts due to these employees at that time.”

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said in a statement that it’s “outrageous that Blackjewel has yanked back so many paychecks and left so many of its employees in limbo. “These miners deserve the wages they earned and the company should also take care of any negative consequences like overdrafts or late fees. I will use any tool or legal resource at my disposal to make sure these folks get paid.”

Michael Kelly, Herring’s director of communications, said that Herring’s office has been in touch with Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear to share resources and information. Beshear’s office announced earlier this week that it was dedicating an investigator to look into issues related to clawed-back paychecks and child support deductions.

Blackjewel is also now facing a class-action lawsuit by a Wyoming employee, who is accusing the company of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act by failing to provide workers a 60-day notice of a mass layoff. That lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in West Virginia.

Brad Hall, who lives in West Virginia but operated shuttle cars at a Blackjewel mine at Jewell Ridge in Virginia, describes the issues he’s faced as “very grim.”

As the sole provider for a family with five kids, having his $2,484 paycheck bounce left his bank account with a negative balance. And he said workers would have had another payday Friday, but he doesn’t expect to see that money on time.

He added that there’s been a lot of talk surrounding Blackjewel, but he’s seen no direct help for those out of work for nearly two weeks.

“It seems like everyone will hear my story, but nobody has done anything,” he said.