A once-prolific but now much-reduced Northwest restaurant chain is the focus of two class-action lawsuits involving former employees as well as job applicants.

The corporate entities tied to ownership of Shari’s Cafe & Pies, with just a handful of locations remaining, are the focus of the two cases, one filed in Washington state and the other in Oregon.

The Washington case involves allegations of past job postings that ran afoul of salary and benefits information requirements, while the Oregon case is tied to the sudden layoffs and closures of Shari’s Oregon properties.

Attempts to reach Shari’s corporate legal department for comment on the cases were unsuccessful. An auto-reply generated by the email listed in its corporate filings with Washington state noted the recipient was “no longer at the company” and referred inquiries to other unrelated departments.

Oregon lawsuitThe most recent of the two lawsuits was filed in November against Shari’s Management Corporation, Gather Holdings, LLC, and Gather Holdings Guarantee, LLC, following the mass closing of the Oregon restaurants in October.

The case, filed by attorneys for former Shari’s employee Heidi Woebbeking of Portland, contends she was “terminated without cause and did not receive 60 days’ notice of her termination.”

At the time of her employment, she was working at the chain’s Grant’s Pass restaurant.

“On or about October 20, 2024, Defendants unceremoniously informed all employees (including Woebbeking) at her restaurant, that their jobs would be immediately terminated as of that same day,” the filing states.

“Defendants not only failed to provide any advance notice, but they also failed to pay out the full amount of (Woebbeking’s) and the putative class’s final paychecks,” according to the filing.

The lawsuit contends that the chain violated terms of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers to give a 60-day notice to affected employees as well as state and local representatives “prior to a plant closing or mass layoff,” as described at the state’s WARN Act Notifications site online.

According to the lawsuit, the layoffs affected “at least 50 employees,” though it is unclear the total number of workers who lost jobs.

The lawsuit seeks to cover all Shari’s employees terminated in a span of three months.

“Within 90 days of October 20, 2024, upon information and belief, defendants abruptly terminated employees across all locations in Oregon, unilaterally and without proper notice to employees or staff, terminating over 50 employees and at least 33% of active full-time employees, including Plaintiff,” it states.

The lawsuit calls for “back pay to the fullest extent permitted by the WARN Act” along with compensation for lost benefits as well as litigation costs and attorney fees and seeks a jury trial.

Woebbeking’s attorney did not respond to a News Tribune request for comment on the case.

The Oregon closures as previously reported appeared to be tied to debt owed the Oregon Lottery for video lottery-gaming machines, which had been an extra revenue stream at its restaurants in that state.

Melanie Mesaros, media representative for the Oregon Lottery, told The News Tribune this week in response to questions, “No payments have been made. The outstanding debt amount is the same as what we previously shared: $905,164.67.”

The closures marked an end of an era for the chain that originally launched in 1978 in Hermiston, Oregon. At the time of the closures, Shari’s had 42 sites remaining in the state.

Washington lawsuitA separate class-action lawsuit against Shari’s Management Corp. and 10 unidentified parties was filed June 14 in Pierce County Superior Court, later removed to federal court.

In that case, Mary Turner of Puyallup and Tyler Crutchfield of Olympia contend that Shari’s violated regulations regarding the state’s wage-transparency requirements.