Former Signature Room workers owed $1.5 million after abrupt closure, federal judge rules

A federal judge found that the owners of the Signature Room, which closed abruptly in September, owe former employees more than $1.5 million in back pay and benefits after workers filed a lawsuit in October alleging they weren’t given proper notice of the restaurant’s closure.

The workers of the former Signature Room at the 95th and the Signature Lounge at the 96th gathered outside the building formerly known as the John Hancock Center Thursday to celebrate the March 14 decision along with representatives from their union, Unite Here Local 1.

The lawsuit, filed by the union on behalf of the workers, alleged about 130 employees, cooks, servers, bartenders and other staff were laid off in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires certain large employers to provide written notice of certain business closures or mass layoffs at least 60 days in advance.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber issued a default judgment against the restaurant’s management firm, Infusion Management Group Inc., after the company failed to respond to the lawsuit, according to court filings.

Ronald Gorny, 58, stood with his former co-workers and friends Thursday enjoying a piece of a cake the group cut to mark the occasion. The cake had a copy of the judgment screen-printed on top with “justice is served” written underneath.

Gorny was a server at the Signature Room for 23 years and said he fondly remembered seeing “the beautiful city every night and the celebrations that people were having” at the restaurant. Thinking back to September, Gorny said the closing announcement was hard to wrap his mind around.

“It was shocking,” Gorny said. “It took a while to really sink in. When you work for a company that long, you don’t expect to be treated the way you’re treated.”

The owners of the Signature Room, partners Rick Roman and Nick Pyknis of Infusion Management Group , have 30 days to comply with the judgment, which also includes attorney’s fees totaling over $22,000. Once the 30 days are up and if the payments haven’t been made voluntarily, the union can go back to court to attempt to enforce the order.

“It’s just been a real injustice for the amount of time we’ve given and money that we’ve made for the company over the years,” Gorny said. “There’s a bigger picture here that people can’t pay for their mortgages and homes because of the lost wages.”

The WARN Act lawsuit was put on hold last year when Infusion Management Group filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. The Nov. 1 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois listed $1.8 million in assets — mostly furniture, fixtures, equipment and collectibles — and $2.1 million in liabilities.

The bankruptcy case was closed in January without any payments made to creditors, which also means any debts the company owed before the bankruptcy filing remain.

The Signature Room owners are also wrapped up in unfair labor practice charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board as well as a complaint that was filed with the Illinois Department of Labor, both relating to the restaurant’s sudden closure and lack of notice to workers.

Infusion Management Group also has a lawsuit pending against its insurers for coverage of a 2019 biometric privacy case filed in Cook County Circuit Court over the use of fingerprint scans for Signature Room employees, according to court filings.

Gorny, the longtime Signature Room employee, acknowledged Thursday the recent judgment was only the first step in recovering money owed to employees.

“It’s one step at a time,” he said. “Everything is a process, and things take time.”

Efforts to reach representatives for Roman and Pyknis Thursday were unsuccessful.