Hundreds of out-of-work Goodwill Toronto employees might never see any of the money they’re owed, Toronto labour lawyers say.

The roughly 430 employees learned Thursday morning that Goodwill would not be meeting its payroll Friday, meaning they wouldn’t be paid for hours already worked. The announcement was made by Goodwill Toronto CEO Keiko Nakamura in a statement on the charity’s website.

Goodwill of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario closed all of its 16 stores and 10 donations centres Sunday, leaving 430 workers stranded. The Friday before the closure, the charity’s board resigned en masse, but left “clear instructions” for Nakamura to continue her job.

Nakamura blamed the closures on a “cash-flow crisis” brought on by high rent and a slump in sales at a press conference Monday.

“I recognize this has all happened very suddenly, and for those involved, unfortunately that is the situation we are facing,” she told a news conference.

Goodwill Toronto did not respond to repeated requests for comment Thursday. Tim Lai, an account director for Brown & Cohen, which is representing Goodwill Toronto in this matter, said the company was hoping to release more information soon.

The sudden nature of the closures took many by surprise, including Andrew Langille, a co-ordinating staff lawyer for Toronto East Employment Law Service.

“I’m surprised that an organization this big didn’t see this coming,” Langille said.

Daniel Lublin, an employment lawyer and partner at Whitten & Lublin, called the lack of transparency around the closures “borderline unethical.”

“Typically in the situation where there’s a closure — and I use the word closure because we don’t know if they’re bankrupt or insolvent — there’s a lot more transparency,” he said.

As an example, Lublin cited Target Canada stores, where non-unionized employees were given advance notice of their closure and given weeks to prepare.

“Target saw it coming, made provision for advance notice for the staff and had set aside money for severance packages. The unique part [with Goodwill] is that these people just showed up… to see the doors locked,” he said.

The legalities around the closures are complex, and depend on whether Goodwill decides to declare bankruptcy, according to Lindsay Lawrence, an employment lawyer and partner at Goldblatt Partners LLP.

“It’s not clear what’s happened… [the employees] don’t know whether this is a bankruptcy, they don’t know whether this is temporary … and that makes it more difficult to address in terms of what steps need to be taken next,” she said.

Lawrence said that with any interruption of work, an employer must issue records of employment within seven days. Records of employment are important, but not absolutely necessary, when applying for employment insurance.In a statement posted on Goodwill’s website, Nakamura said the company would update employees on payroll and records of employment on Monday, Jan. 25.

Denis Ellickson, a lawyer with the Canadian Airport Workers Union, which represents the workers, said the union is hopeful payroll might be paid out Monday. The union’s focus is still on getting the stores and centres reopened, but if that doesn’t happen they have arranged presentations with Service Canada that will allow people to apply for employment insurance.

“It’s unfair and unreasonable for anyone to expect these people to sit around and wait for these stores to reopen,” Ellickson said.

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Lublin said the employees should consider themselves out of work even now and should start looking at claiming employment insurance and looking for other jobs.

“This is the end of the line. I don’t think there’s any real likelihood these stores will magically open… who can afford to be out work for a month while [Goodwill] sorts it out?” he said.

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