Employees at Erwin Hymer Group North America say they have been fired effective immediately.
They say they got their notices on Friday afternoon.
An employee at the location on Shirley Avenue who did not want to be named took a video of what they say was them being notified. In it, a man in a suit appears to tell the employees that the company was put into receivership.
“In court this afternoon in Toronto about half an hour ago, the company was placed into receivership, which is a form of insolvency,” the man says. “The effect of that is a court order essentially terminates everyone’s employment effective today.”
In the video he says that wages would be paid through Friday and that they hoped that vacation pay would be paid out within two weeks. He says that the company would idle for six weeks while it tried to find a buyer.
Still, some employees are worried about long-term pay.
“A lot of people that have been here a really long time are upset because they don’t know where their pension plan is going to come from, or stuff like their severance pay,” says Ryan Rogers, who worked at the Shirley Avenue location.
Workers in Kitchener and in Cambridge at the Tyler Street and Reuter Drive locations were all reportedly let go.
Dozens of employees were seen leaving the building on Shirley Avenue. Some were hugging or shaking hands on their way out. Many were upset or in shock.
“Words are hard to come by right now. I just don’t know how we’re going to survive, knowing that this just hit us like that,” said one employee who did not want to appear on camera.
The news comes following an announcement that the North American branch of the company would not be involved in the sale of its operations to Thor Industries in the United States.
In January, nearly 100 employees were reportedly laid off. About a week later, the company told employees that there were no more layoffs planned in the coming months.
The company had also launched an investigation into what it called financial irregularities.
Several managers were suspended while that investigation was ongoing.
Erwin Hymer Group did not respond to a request for comment.
