Laid-Off Workers Sue Aerospace Firm

Workers laid off from Burbank Aeronautical Corp. II have filed a federal lawsuit alleging the aerospace company failed to pay them, their attorney said.

The suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that Burbank Aeronautical owes several weeks of back pay to 370 workers who were furloughed after the company was beset with financial problems earlier this year.

An attorney for the workers said they were suing under the Fair Labor Standards Act, seeking back wages totaling $500,000 as well as $12 million in penalties.

“It’s not just legally wrong but morally wrong not to pay your workers,” attorney J. David Stackman said. “We’re going to try to collect as much as we can.”

Company President Kenneth McGuire could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit.

But McGuire told The Times in June that Burbank Aeronautical intended to pay the workers as soon as the company is reimbursed for the “hush kits” it had built.

“We consider ourselves a very responsible employer,” McGuire said at that time.

Officials from the company, which makes noise-abatement equipment for airliners known as hush kits, had said it could not afford to pay workers after a Miami-based airline customer missed payments on two kits it had ordered.

Most of the employees who were furloughed came from welfare-training programs.