Former Modukraf employee files class action lawsuit against its parent company

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FRANKLIN COUNTY (WSLS 10) - A former Modukraf employee has started a class-action lawsuit against its parent company, Innovative Building Systems, LLC, to recover lost wages and benefits.

Modukraf closed unexpectedly last month, putting around 150 people in Rocky Mount out of work.

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Justin Forry was a project manager at the construction company.

He says a lot of former employees like himself are hurting right now, because they were only given one day's notice before losing their jobs.

Forry says he received an email from the company on Sunday May 1st, saying quote "No one in your group, including yourself, is to come in. We will see how this plays out tomorrow."

He says that was the last he ever heard from his general manager.

Meanwhile, he had clients waiting on their house to be constructed.

"They were probably 50 to 75 percent done with their house, and we had to pull our contractors off, because there was no money to pay them," said Forry.

Forry says his attorney at the law firm Outten and Golden in New York has told him under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN Act, the company was required to give him and his colleagues 60 days notice they would lose their jobs.

He's suing to get those 2 months of pay back, and all the vacation he had accrued.

He already has more than 10 former employees interested in joining him.

"We're not going after the company for millions of dollars that we're not really due, we just want what's due to us. I mean I've been at the company for 24 years, and to be let go like that, I think it's unfair," said Forry.

The parent company, Innovative Building Systems, LLC, filed for bankruptcy in Deleware on May 11th, closing each of its 5 branches in Virginia, Maine, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Indiana.

Like many former employees, Forry says he's currently unemployed, doing part-time work until he can find another position.