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A bankruptcy judge agreed on Monday to seal the financial settlement reached in the WARN Act compensation dispute between defunct Microfibres Inc. and plaintiffs certified for a class-action lawsuit, the Winston-Salem Journal reported yesterday. The reaching of a settlement was disclosed Jan. 13. The lead plaintiff is former Winston-Salem employee Cedric Williams. Microfibres, based in Pawtucket, R.I., filed for chapter 7 voluntary bankruptcy protection in January 2016 with plans to liquidate its assets — the same day it closed its plants in Winston-Salem and Pawtucket. The local workforce was at 270 employees in 2004. About 125 employees in Winston-Salem and 60 in Pawtucket were projected to be covered by federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, protections. The plaintiffs asked for at least $1.5 million in damages and priority administrative claim status for the first $12,745 of each employee’s claim. Williams filed the sealed request with Judge Diane Finkle, with no objections from the bankruptcy trustee, Joseph DiOrio, who had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

The Illinois Senate on Monday easily approved Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to shore up two city worker pension funds, but the measure faces an uncertain future now that it's headed to a skeptical Gov. Bruce Rauner, the Chicago Tribune reported today. The mayor's bill is aimed at preventing retirement systems for municipal workers and laborers from going broke in about a decade. The two funds are a combined $21 billion short of what's needed to pay out future benefits, and the plan relies on newly hired employees paying more toward their retirement. The Illinois House approved the bill 91-16 last month, and on Monday the Senate followed suit, 41-0. But the Rauner administration, which is seeking a broader deal to cut costs in state worker pension systems, responded Monday by throwing some cold water on the plan. "The governor cannot support this bill without real pension reform that protects taxpayers," Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement.