When the coal operator Blackjewel shuttered the gates of two mines in the Powder River Basin this summer, the insolvent company had already withheld wages and other benefits from its miners, a state office claims, the Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune reported. Even as Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines have reopened under new ownership, a vast majority of former Blackjewel workers have yet to receive the full compensation they were promised, according to recent investigations by Wyoming’s Labor Standards Office. When it filed for bankruptcy, Blackjewel owed 506 workers hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages and benefits. But nearly six months later, only 33 workers have filed a claim for compensation with the state. The Wyoming Department of Workforce Services has finished investigating 31 of those claims and concluded Blackjewel failed to pay the 31 workers nearly $164,000 of owed wages and benefits. Blackjewel has provided the state with proof of paying workers just $56,800 of the amount owed. The company withheld payments from employees’ health savings and retirement accounts over the course of five pay periods prior to the bankruptcy, according to the investigations. And before filing for chapter 11, Blackjewel also withdrew employee retirement contributions from workers’ paychecks without transferring the funds to their retirement accounts.
