150 workers terminated after Canada-based company behind listeria outbreak files for creditor protection

Workers stunned by sudden closure of GTA factory Nearly 120 Joriki employees are demanding an explanation for the sudden closure of the factory at the centre of a deadly listeria outbreak.

Roughly 150 workers at a Canada-based beverage manufacturing and packaging company are demanding answers after recently losing their jobs without warning.

The employees in question worked for Joriki Beverages Inc., which has one production facility in the United States and three others in Canada, including a plant in Pickering that was at the centre of last summer’s deadly listeria outbreak.

The production line at that location was used by plant-based milks manufacturer Danone, the parent company behind Silk. The factory was shut down once it was determined to be the source of the illness, which killed three people and sickened almost two dozen others.

Company is seeking creditor protection

Joriki didn’t let its workers go because it filed for bankruptcy.

Instead, the job losses come as a result of the company seeking creditor protection under the under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The company owes 200-plus companies more than $200 million, including $775,000 of benefits and unpaid wages.

“Please be advised that the Company is not bankrupt and has availed itself of a procedure whereby a company, with creditor and Court approval, restructures its financial affairs,” reads a Jan. 3 letter sent to its creditors by licensed insolvency trustees Alvarez and Marsal Canada Inc.

The trustees went on to say these proceedings were initiated to “create a stabilized environment and to allow the Company breathing room while it evaluates its strategic alternatives.”

This brings little consolation to the dozens of affected workers, who told CTV News Toronto earler this week that they were given their usual two-week holiday break from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2, but received an email the night of Dec. 31 informing them that their employment has been terminated “effective immediately.”

The termination letter from Joriki stated this decision comes amid “significant business challenges arising from a product recall, including a significant loss of business and ongoing liquidity issues.”

The company goes on to say it is “pursuing a strategic process in an attempt to identify and complete a going concern sale of some or all of its business but no transaction has been identified to date and the Company no longer has access to financing to continue active business operations and is ceasing operations immediately.”

Joriki further advised employees that while they will receive all outstanding wages earned and accrued as well as unused vacation pay, it is “unable to make any payment to you in connection with the termination of your employment, including any pay in lieu of notice that may be due to you…”

Former workers protest sudden closure

Many of those employees have been with the company for years and did not expect to receive this news. Several of them protested the sudden closure on Monday outside the company’s headquarters at 3431 McNicoll Ave. in Scarborough.

Rajendram Arumugam, who has worked at Joriki for more than four years, said he and his co-workers met with their plant manager last month and were assured that everything was fine.

“He told us there’s nothing going to happen,” Arumugam said.

“The company is safe from January. There are more orders to come for the company, so the company is safe, don’t worry.”

Stanley Mathew, an employee of more than 18 years, was shocked by the unexpected news.

“I was on a two-week vacation I come back to start my eight o’clock shift and this is what happens,” he said.

“You throw us on the street like that, that’s not right,” added Walid Kaakaeei, who has more than 15 years of service.

Employment lawyer Luc Cerda, of Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, said the workers can try to get the money they’re owed, but those funds may not be guaranteed.

“You have a paper right to your full severance now. How much of that will the company actually be able to repay once they emerge from creditor protection is a different story,” he said.

Joriki, Danone, and Walmart Canada have also been named in a class-action lawsuit launched in Quebec over the listeria outbreak. The lawsuit has not yet been certified by a judge.

We reached out to Joriki for comment, but have not heard back.

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Rahim Ladhani