Bitwise Industries announced Wednesday that it has officially laid off its entire 900-person workforce.
That comes just a couple weeks after the Fresno-based real estate and tech company furloughed its employees amid its financial collapse.
Driving the news: Bitwise Interim President Ollen Douglass sent out a notice to its workforce that their positions were eliminated on Wednesday.
- The email noted that all positions at the company’s offices in Fresno; Bakersfield; Merced; Greeley, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; Toledo, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and El Paso, Texas have been permanently terminated.
- Douglass said in the email that the company was unable to provide its employees with more notice due to “unforeseeable business circumstances and other reasons.”
- Douglass told the former employees that they may be eligible for unemployment insurance and asked them to contact him for any questions or additional information.
What they’re saying: Fresno attorney Roger Bonakdar, who represents Bitwise employees in a class action suit regarding labor law violations,
- “Their email exposes the fact that everyone was truly terminated on May 29,” Bonakdar said. “In reality, they were terminated when their payroll checks bounced and Bitwise did nothing about it.”
- “What matters is their conduct. What matters is what is measurable on the ground,” Bonakdar added. “This new email is simply some ill-advised scramble to try and deflect what a blind man can see – that Bitwise collapsed right before the furlough notice. Bitwise had collapsed before May 29.”
What we’re watching: The City of Fresno is hosting a job fair for the former Bitwise employees on Friday at City Hall.
- The city will connect dozens of businesses to the laid off employees, and the city itself is in the market to hire from the Bitwise workforce.
