Judge OKs Severance Pay For SemGroup

There will be severance for the laid off employees at SemGroup.  A bankruptcy judge approved the money on Monday afternoon for employees who no longer have a job.  The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports the ruling came from a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware.

The judge cleared the way for $1.1 million to pay employees for two weeks beyond the date they were laid off.

SemGroup filed for bankruptcy on July 22^nd after losing an estimated $2 billion in oil trading.

The company laid off 220 employees last Monday, including 100 in Tulsa at company headquarters. 

Those employees left the building with nothing promised, because SemGroup can't spend anything without the approval of a judge.

On Monday, the company was told it can give the laid off employees a severance check that amounts to what they would have earned through this coming Friday.

In addition to severance, the employees are eligible for regular unemployment as they try to make the transition to a new job and it's possible still they could get job placement assistance funded by the company, but a SemGroup spokesman said they are waiting on a separate approval order for that.