[ by Howard Haykin ]

MF Global trustees are appealing to the court to throw out a lawsuit filed by employees, who claim they were fired without proper notice.  Lawyers for the trustees said at a court hearing that the firm was not subject to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers to give notice of mass layoffs, because liquidating companies are not considered employers.

The trustees are:  Louis Freeh, who's winding down the MF parent company; and James Giddens, who's liquidating MF's broker-dealer unit.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn declined to rule from the bench, requesting more information about where some of the plaintiffs worked and what they did.   The suit was filed by a small group of MF Global employees that said more than 1,000 workers were fired without warning shortly after the firm's October bankruptcy filing. 

MF Global collapsed over fears about its exposure to risky European debt.  Former CEO Jon Corzine stepped down on 11/4/11 after regulators found a massive shortfall in the firm's customer accounts. Giddens has since estimated that shortfall at $1.6 billion.    [Reuters, 9/12/12]