Severance Pay In Question For Former Employees

More than 100 Tulsans are out of a job. The bankrupt SemGroup handed out pink slips on Monday morning. But, that's not the only blow the employees received. News On 6 anchor Latoya Silmon reports SemGroup has to wait on a bankruptcy court to decide whether laid off employees will get severance pay.

One bankruptcy attorney says take a number because they're not the only ones looking for a payday.

Employees packed up and one-by-one left their livelihoods behind. SemGroup sent 110 employees packing on Monday. The layoffs come just weeks after the company filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. With its financial woes, the possibility of severance packages hang in the balance.

"When the company is being sold off in pieces to try to pay its creditors, how high of a priority is it that the people that we're firing because we don't need them anymore have a soft landing? Not very high," said bankruptcy attorney, Mark Craige.

Bankruptcy attorney Mark Craige says creditors have filed more than 200 claims since SemGroup filed bankruptcy. Craige represents 12 oil producers who claim SemGroup owes them anywhere between $25,000 and $500,000. He says those are considered small.

"I don't know what the dollar amount magnitude of that is, but it's probably going to be hundreds of millions of dollars of people who sold oil to SemGroup 20 days before it filed," said Craige.

So, he says while most people would like to think the company should help former employees, SemGroup may not be in the position to rescue them because it's busy trying to stay afloat.

"Should I count on that? I'd say no. If you get it, Hallelujah Christmas came early," said Craige.
A bankruptcy court is scheduled to make a decision next Monday on whether employees get any severance.

As for executives who have so called golden parachute deals, Craige says in his professional opinion, they probably won't get the million dollars promised because the company is bankrupt.

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