TAPS Lays Off More Than 60% Of Work Force
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SHERMAN (CBS11) - More than a hundred North Texans are without a job as of Wednesday. It's the latest round of layoffs for the troubled public transit agency, TAPS.
For about seven hours, laid off employees held a protest outside the TAPS Sherman headquarters demanding to know when they're going to get paid the money owed to them. They didn't get their checks, but their protest did pay off.
Demonstrators gathered outside TAPS main offices holding signs and speaking out about not receiving their final paychecks after last week's layoffs.
"Some of us are single parents. Some of us are just getting our bills above water anyway," former TAPS employee Chrystal Yarbrough said.
Today's round of layoffs cut 62% of the TAPS workforce, leaving protestors with little confidence about getting what they're owed anytime soon.
"We are not leaving here today until somebody from the powers that be comes out of that building and has a talk with us regarding communication, a timeline in which we're getting paid. What are they going to do?" Yarbrough said.
For weeks TAPS has failed to make its payroll. The cost-cutting moves come after TAPS board members voted to streamline its bus routes down to a bare bones service to stay in business. Interim CEO Tim Patton hopes to keep the few remaining routes running. He walked outside to the demonstrators to tell them he's working to get them paid the money they're owed.
"The best answer for us is how quickly we can get reimbursements back from the state and the Feds, so when we're talking about funding translating into payroll, that's really what it's all about," Patton said.
It isn't clear how long that will take, but demonstrators were grateful to at least hear directly from someone in charge.
"We know this company is broke. We know that they don't have the ability to write us all checks and pay us today. We knew that coming in to this. All we wanted was communication," former TAPS employee Tina Richie-Tomlinson said.
TAPS leaders spent the day working with auditors reviewing grant funding expected to be paid soon. A spokesperson says former employees could be paid as early as this week. Meanwhile, laid off employees tell us they expect to work with the Office of the Inspector General to help with the investigation into possible fraud at the company.
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