LME Inc., a trucking company based out of Roseville, Minnesota, abruptly closed its five facilities in Iowa, including one in Des Moines, on Friday with no prior warning or notification to employees.

"We apologize for the inconvenience of the situation but effective July 12, 2019 LME Inc. will no longer be making pickups or deliveries of freight due to unforeseen circumstances and have ceased operations," LME Inc. said in a statement on their website.

The statement claims that some staff remains to help organize remaining deliveries through a third party. According to the Iowa Secretary of State's website, the company is registered but listed as inactive.

The Star Tribune reports that LME has shut down 30 delivery terminals across several states, leaving "hundreds of workers laid off with no notice and at least some unpaid."

LME lists customers such as 3M, Bobcat and John Deere.

This shutdown comes a month after the company began paying out a $1.25 million settlement to union workers in Minnesota after they were laid off abruptly in November 2016 from LME affiliate Lakeville Motor Express, according to the Star Tribune.

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry said it is currently looking into whether or not labor laws were once again violated by the company.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires that employers give 60 days advance notice prior to mass layoffs. The state requires this as a way to try to adequately prepare workers and provide them with the job transition resources that the state provides.

"Absolutely no one from our terminal was paid at all," Jeff Smith, a full-time employee of the company at a terminal in Council Bluffs, said in a statement to the Register. "We were due a paycheck today as well as we are owed 2 more weeks since they were 2 weeks held."

On Thursday morning, Smith received a card to celebrate his one-year anniversary working for LME with $20 cash inside before going out to make deliveries. When he returned at the end of the day, he was told by his boss that "no one had a job anymore."

Smith has claimed he was told by management that it was unclear when he would be paid and by a colleague that "no money and that we would not be paid at all."

Another former employee, Richard Judkins, confirmed that he was owed three weeks pay at the time of the layoff.

According to the WARN log, LME did not register with the state prior to the layoff.

Through a statement, the Iowa Divison of Labor indicated that they do investigate potential WARN violations, but do not make such information public until an administrative law judge makes a decision regarding the violation.

The Iowa Division of Labor also has an administrative process in place for investigating wage claims for those who feel they have been denied wages they are owed.

Aaron Calvin covers trending news for the Register. Reach him at acalvin@registermedia.com or 515-556-9097.

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