Lane Home Furnishing is shutting down its Furnishing business and laying off all its employees.

United Furniture Inds., which operates under the brand Lane Home Furnishing, sent an email to its employees on the night of November 21, 2022. The email said all of the company's nearly 2,700 employees were laid off immediately, with the exception of the drivers who are currently making deliveries.

Founded in 1912, United Furniture Industries is one of the fastest growing and largest furniture and luggage manufacturers in the United States, with 18 factories, offices and distribution centers in California, Mississippi and North Carolina, as well as Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It has more than 3,000 employees. After transitioning its factory operations in July, the company employs about 2,700 people in 17 U.S. business units.

Here is a copy of the email sent to staff:

"As directed by the Board of Directors of United Furniture Inds. and all of its subsidiaries, we regret to inform you that due to unforeseen business circumstances, the company has been forced to make the difficult decision to terminate the employment of all employees with immediate effect from November 21, 2022, with the exception of drivers on the way to delivery.

You are expected to be permanently terminated by the company and all benefits will terminate immediately in the absence of the provision of COBRA (unemployment health insurance for employees). Road drivers who make deliveries will be paid for the rest of the week. Whether or not you have completed delivery, please immediately return the completed delivery equipment, inventory and delivery documents to one of the following locations: Winston-Salem, N.C., Verona, Miss., or Victorville, Calif. To be clear, please do not complete any additional deliveries.

We regret that the difficult circumstances and unforeseen circumstances facing our company have forced us to take this action. More information will be provided later, thank you for your continued service and dedication."

According to former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity, they received preliminary notices around midnight on Nov. 21 telling them not to report to work in the morning. The notice was subsequently withdrawn and replaced by the above email.

But some lawyers say United Furniture Inds. The move could be a violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or the "Caveat Act." The law requires companies to give workers 60 days' notice before a factory closes or goes out of business, and employers to pay laid-off workers wages and benefits for at least 60 days. But the commerce departments in North Carolina, Mississippi and California have yet to receive the company's filing. It is also a violation of employment law not to provide employees with unemployment health insurance.

In June, United Furniture terminated the employment of its chief executive, chief financial officer and executive vice president of sales, and named Todd Evans, a former president of Standard Furniture, as chief executive. The company then reorganized its sales organization, appointing Ruff Thomas as president of sales for the domestic division and Keith News as president of sales for the import division. A month later, United Furniture Inc. laid off 300 employees, closed a metal-stamping plant in Highpoint, N.C., converted a manufacturing plant in Emery, Miss., into a warehouse and moved operations in Winston-Salem, N.C., to distribution centers on the East Coast.