Former employees at an Indianapolis machine shop said they've been denied unemployment benefits and are still waiting for back pay after the company closed this week.
Indianapolis Diversified Machining, located at the old United Airlines maintenance hub, shut down on Monday, Call 6's Rafael Sanchez reported.
But when former employees went to file for unemployment, they said they were told by the state that they were not eligible because there was no record of the company paying unemployment tax.
Many of the former employees also told Call 6 that the company owes them at least four weeks of back pay.
"A lot of people are on withdrawal from their accounts as far as their mortgages and car payments," said former employee Jim Carnahan. "Our pay goes in on Sunday evening and people were writing checks on that. So Monday morning we come into work and we're done. No work, no pay."
State Sen. Brent Waltz is listed as the director of Indianapolis Diversified Machining, although he told Sanchez on Friday that he only helped found the company in 2003 and was not involved in the day-to-day operations.
He said when he learned of the closing he encouraged the owners to have
enough money to pay employees.
"I am absolutely appalled that the company did not pay these employees," Waltz said. "I am doing everything I can to make sure people get paid the money they deserve."
Indianapolis Diversified Machining employed 50 people. Calls to the company on Friday were not returned.
The timing of this news could not be worse for Waltz. Indiana's unemployment system is bankrupt, and the state is borrowing hundreds of millions from the federal government to keep the system afloat. Waltz was one of 20 senators who voted against a bailout plan approved by the Indiana Senate.
5 comments:
Dontcha wonder how well it paid to be a 'director' with no day to day involvement in its operation?
So Senator Waltz doesn't own the business, right? He was just its founder.
This is typical of Waltz....a Danny Burton style sleazebag but it is so strong a GOP district that only the republicans can take him out.
The company didn't direct employee Social Security deductions into their accounts or match them either.
They stole thousands of $s from the employees and tax payers. They all need to spend time in prison and meet bubba...
How does such a scum bag even get to be an elected public official? I thought there was watch dog groups that protect us from the likes of Brent Waltz. I work for a judge in St. Joseph County and fielded a letter written by Brent. He was trying to help out a woman who was in custody case for her daughter by trying to sway the judge with his position as a State Senator. When I was looking over this case, I thought it was extremely odd that a State Senator would have ties to this woman. She had been arrested 6 times in the past 2 years, works as a stripper, failed a drug test for methamphetamine, and had lost custody of previous child. You should have seen this woman in court. She was an 85 pound junkie with sores all over her face. The woman proceeded to loose custody of this child too! Why would such an upstanding government official even know someone like this? I would like to hear Mr. Waltz explain his relationship with this woman.
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