Mr. Xavier Rossinyol, Chief Executive Officer, Gate Group (July 29, 2020)

Summary

Letter dated July 29, 2020 to Xavier Rossinyol, Chief Executive Officer of Gate Group, about Gate Group's subsidiary Gate Gourmet. The letter states a concern that Gate Gourmet is receiving $171 million from the Treasury Department through the Payroll Support Program despite having recently laid off thousands of workers, and that Gate Gourmet has laid off more than 3,500 workers in California, Georgia, Illinois, and New York alone. It urges Gate Gourmet to rehire the laid-off workers or return the corresponding funds. It asks for a response by August 5, 2020 and requests documents and written answers by August 12, 2020.

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Issuer: Congressional materials
Document type: 2020 07 29 2020 07 29 Clyburn Defazio Waters To Rossinyol Gate Gourmet Re Payroll Support
Date: 2020-07-29
Case: 2020 07 29 2020 07 29 Clyburn Defazio Waters To Rossinyol Gate Gourmet Re Payroll Support Program

Cite this document

“Mr. Xavier Rossinyol, Chief Executive Officer, Gate Group (July 29, 2020).” Dated 2020-07-29. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2020-07-29-2020-07-29-2020-07-29-clyburn-defazio-waters-to-rossinyol-gate-gourmet-re-payroll-support-program/, SHA-256 f054335e45cbf272c2afa615b7151f18fb0c821a109a44cd8e36529ceae6c5af.

Full text

July 29, 2020

Mr. Xavier Rossinyol
Chief Executive Officer
Gate Group
1880 Campus Commons Drive
Reston, Virginia 20191

Dear Mr. Rossinyol:

We are writing regarding our concern that Gate Group’s subsidiary, Gate Gourmet, is
receiving $171 million of taxpayer dollars from the Treasury Department through the Payroll
Support Program despite the fact that the company recently laid off thousands of workers.
Congress created this program to “preserve aviation jobs” by providing wage assistance to
companies in exchange for keeping workers on the payroll. 1 Giving payroll support to
companies that engaged in mass layoffs is not only contrary to congressional intent, but also
wastes taxpayer dollars by covering the cost of payroll for employees that have already been laid
off. We urge Gate Gourmet to rehire the workers it laid off or return the taxpayer funds that
correspond to payroll support for jobs that no longer exist.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Emergency Security (CARES) Act authorized Treasury
to provide up to $32 billion to “preserve aviation jobs and compensate air carrier industry
workers,” including contractors providing services to the aviation industry. Under the Act,
Payroll Support Program funds must be used exclusively to pay employee wages, salaries, and
benefits. 2 To receive these funds, recipients must “refrain from conducting involuntary
furloughs or reducing pay rates and benefits until September 30, 2020.” 3 The maximum amount
of assistance available under the Program is calculated based on the compensation the contractor
paid to employees from April through September 2019. 4

Gate Gourmet is expected to receive more than $171 million in payroll support—more
than any other aviation contractor to date. 5 Since the CARES Act was signed into law, Gate
Gourmet has laid off more than 3,500 workers in California, Georgia, Illinois, and New York
alone—including after Gate Gourmet applied for financial assistance from the Payroll Support

1
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Emergency Security Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136, § 4112(a) (2020).
2
Id.
3
Id. § 4114(a)(1).
4
Id. § 4113(a)(3).
5
Department of the Treasury, Payroll Support Program Payments (online at
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/preserving-jobs-for-american-industry/payroll-support-program-
payments).
Mr. Xavier Rossinyol
Page 2

Program. 6 Your company reportedly applied for payroll assistance on or about April 9, 2020, 7
but it did not execute its agreement with Treasury until June 19, 2020.8 Most of Gate Gourmet’s
layoffs occurred in the two months between the company’s application for payroll assistance and
its executed agreement with Treasury.

Gate Gourmet’s receipt of payroll assistance for jobs that no longer exist is contrary to
Congress’s intent in creating the Payroll Support Program. Please respond by August 5, 2020, to
inform us whether your company will rehire the workers you have laid off during the pandemic
or return the portion of Payroll Support Program funding you received that covers the payroll
costs for terminated workers.

If your company does not plan to rehire its workers or return the taxpayer dollars
corresponding to the payroll costs for laid-off workers, please produce by August 12, 2020, the
following documents and information from March 1, 2020, to the present, to assist us in
examining why your company received these funds and how these funds will be used:

1. All notices provided to any government agency related to layoffs or furloughs
since March 1, 2020;

2. All communications and documents related to the company’s Payroll Support
Program application, enrollment, or funding award, including but not limited to:

a. the company’s Payroll Support Program application, including any
addendums, modifications, or subsequent revisions, as well as any other
document containing the company’s assurances required by Section
4114(a) of the CARES Act;
b. the company’s payroll support agreement with Treasury, including drafts;
c. all communications with the Treasury Department related to the Payroll
Support Program;

6
See State of California, Employment Development Department, WARN Report (07/01/2019 – 06/30/2020)
(online at https://edd.ca.gov/Jobs_and_Training/warn/WARN-Report-for-7-1-2019-to-6-30-2020.pdf) (766 workers
temporarily laid off on March 30; 143 workers laid off permanently on May 20); State of Georgia, Department of
Labor, Business Layoff/Closure Listing (Statewide, 2020) (online at
www.dol.state.ga.us/public/es/warn/searchwarns) (2,052 workers laid off on May 7); State of Illinois, Department of
Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Archived Warn Reports (online at
www.illinoisworknet.com/LayoffRecovery/Pages/ArchivedWARNReports.aspx) (6 workers temporarily furloughed
on April 15; 299 workers permanently laid off on May 20; and 38 workers permanently laid off on June 5); New
York State, Department of Labor, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (online at
https://labor.ny.gov/app/warn/) (263 workers separated on March 31 and permanently laid off on May 20).
7
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Press Release: Teamsters at Gate Gourmet to Receive Paycheck
Protections (Apr. 9, 2020) (online at https://teamster.org/2020/04/teamsters-gate-gourmet-receive-paycheck-
protections/).
8
Department of the Treasury, Payroll Support Program Payments (online at
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/preserving-jobs-for-american-industry/payroll-support-program-
payments).
Mr. Xavier Rossinyol
Page 3

d. any internal and external communications regarding the company’s
eligibility for the Payroll Support Program or the amount of assistance
awardable to the company under the Program, including but not limited to
communications regarding whether layoffs or furloughs would impact the
company’s eligibility or award amount; and
e. all communications with the Treasury Department regarding the
company’s layoffs or furloughs.

In addition, please provide written responses to the following questions by August 12,
2020:

1. How many workers has your company laid off or furloughed (both voluntarily
and involuntarily) since March 1, 2020? Please describe these layoffs and
furloughs, including the effective dates, the locations of the workers affected, the
number of workers affected, the dates on which the layoffs or furloughs were
noticed, and whether the layoffs or furloughs were related to the coronavirus.

2. Has your company reduced pay rates or benefits for any employees since March
1, 2020, including for senior executives? If so, please describe the amount of the
reductions, the dates they occurred, the reasons therefor, and the number of
employees affected.

3. Has your company increased any pay rates or benefits for any employees since
March 1, 2020, including for senior executives? If so, please describe the amount
of the increases, the dates they occurred, the reasons therefor, and the number of
employees affected.

4. Please break down by month the number of employees your company employed
at the end of every month from April 1, 2019, through July 31, 2020.

5. Please break down by month the amount of wages, salaries, benefits, and other
compensation that your company paid its employees for the period from April 1,
2019, through July 31, 2020.

6. Please describe all guidance, if any, your company received from the Treasury
Department about whether layoffs and furloughs affected your company’s
eligibility for the Payroll Support Program and/or the amount of payroll assistance
that your company would receive.

7. Please describe the circumstances of the delay between your company’s
application for Payroll Support Program assistance and the date that your
company executed its payroll support agreement with the Treasury Department.

8. Did your company inform the Treasury Department of the company’s layoffs and
furloughs that occurred between the date of its application and the date of its
Mr. Xavier Rossinyol
Page 4

executed agreement with the Treasury Department? If so, how and under what
circumstances?

9. To date, how much payroll support has your company received from the Treasury
Department?

We also request a staff briefing on these issues by August 12, 2020.

An attachment to this letter provides additional instructions for responding to these
requests. If you have any questions regarding these requests, please contact Select
Subcommittee staff at (202) 225-4400.

Sincerely,

__________________________ __________________________
James E. Clyburn Peter A. DeFazio
Chairman Chairman
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure

__________________________
Maxine Waters
Chairwoman
Committee on Financial Services

Enclosure

cc: The Honorable Steve Scalise, Ranking Member,
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis

The Honorable Sam Graves, Ranking Member,
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

The Honorable Patrick McHenry, Ranking Member,
Committee on Financial Services
Responding to Oversight Committee Document Requests

1. In complying with this request, produce all responsive documents that are in your
possession, custody, or control, whether held by you or your past or present agents,
employees, and representatives acting on your behalf. Produce all documents that you
have a legal right to obtain, that you have a right to copy, or to which you have access, as
well as documents that you have placed in the temporary possession, custody, or control
of any third party.

2. Requested documents, and all documents reasonably related to the requested documents,
should not be destroyed, altered, removed, transferred, or otherwise made inaccessible to
the Committee.

3. In the event that any entity, organization, or individual denoted in this request is or has
been known by any name other than that herein denoted, the request shall be read also to
include that alternative identification.

4. The Committee’s preference is to receive documents in electronic form (i.e., CD,
memory stick, thumb drive, or secure file transfer) in lieu of paper productions.

5. Documents produced in electronic format should be organized, identified, and indexed
electronically.

6. Electronic document productions should be prepared according to the following
standards:

a. The production should consist of single page Tagged Image File (“TIF”), files
accompanied by a Concordance-format load file, an Opticon reference file, and a
file defining the fields and character lengths of the load file.

b. Document numbers in the load file should match document Bates numbers and
TIF file names.

c. If the production is completed through a series of multiple partial productions,
field names and file order in all load files should match.

d. All electronic documents produced to the Committee should include the following
fields of metadata specific to each document, and no modifications should be
made to the original metadata:

BEGDOC, ENDDOC, TEXT, BEGATTACH, ENDATTACH, PAGECOUNT,
CUSTODIAN, RECORDTYPE, DATE, TIME, SENTDATE, SENTTIME,
BEGINDATE, BEGINTIME, ENDDATE, ENDTIME, AUTHOR, FROM, CC,
TO, BCC, SUBJECT, TITLE, FILENAME, FILEEXT, FILESIZE,
DATECREATED, TIMECREATED, DATELASTMOD, TIMELASTMOD,
INTMSGID, INTMSGHEADER, NATIVELINK, INTFILPATH, EXCEPTION,
BEGATTACH.

7. Documents produced to the Committee should include an index describing the contents
of the production. To the extent more than one CD, hard drive, memory stick, thumb
drive, zip file, box, or folder is produced, each should contain an index describing its
contents.

8. Documents produced in response to this request shall be produced together with copies of
file labels, dividers, or identifying markers with which they were associated when the
request was served.

9. When you produce documents, you should identify the paragraph(s) or request(s) in the
Committee’s letter to which the documents respond.

10. The fact that any other person or entity also possesses non-identical or identical copies of
the same documents shall not be a basis to withhold any information.

11. The pendency of or potential for litigation shall not be a basis to withhold any
information.

12. In accordance with 5 U.S.C.§ 552(d), the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and any
statutory exemptions to FOIA shall not be a basis for withholding any information.

13. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b)(9), the Privacy Act shall not be a basis for withholding
information.

14. If compliance with the request cannot be made in full by the specified return date,
compliance shall be made to the extent possible by that date. An explanation of why full
compliance is not possible shall be provided along with any partial production.

15. In the event that a document is withheld on the basis of privilege, provide a privilege log
containing the following information concerning any such document: (a) every privilege
asserted; (b) the type of document; (c) the general subject matter; (d) the date, author,
addressee, and any other recipient(s); (e) the relationship of the author and addressee to
each other; and (f) the basis for the privilege(s) asserted.

16. If any document responsive to this request was, but no longer is, in your possession,
custody, or control, identify the document (by date, author, subject, and recipients), and
explain the circumstances under which the document ceased to be in your possession,
custody, or control.

17. If a date or other descriptive detail set forth in this request referring to a document is
inaccurate, but the actual date or other descriptive detail is known to you or is otherwise
apparent from the context of the request, produce all documents that would be responsive
as if the date or other descriptive detail were correct.

2
18. This request is continuing in nature and applies to any newly-discovered information.
Any record, document, compilation of data, or information not produced because it has
not been located or discovered by the return date shall be produced immediately upon
subsequent location or discovery.

19. All documents shall be Bates-stamped sequentially and produced sequentially.

20. Two sets of each production shall be delivered, one set to the Majority Staff and one set
to the Minority Staff. When documents are produced to the Committee, production sets
shall be delivered to the Majority Staff in Room 2157 of the Rayburn House Office
Building and the Minority Staff in Room 2105 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

21. Upon completion of the production, submit a written certification, signed by you or your
counsel, stating that: (1) a diligent search has been completed of all documents in your
possession, custody, or control that reasonably could contain responsive documents; and
(2) all documents located during the search that are responsive have been produced to the
Committee.

Definitions

1. The term “document” means any written, recorded, or graphic matter of any nature
whatsoever, regardless of how recorded, and whether original or copy, including, but not
limited to, the following: memoranda, reports, expense reports, books, manuals,
instructions, financial reports, data, working papers, records, notes, letters, notices,
confirmations, telegrams, receipts, appraisals, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers,
prospectuses, communications, electronic mail (email), contracts, cables, notations of any
type of conversation, telephone call, meeting or other inter-office or intra-office
communication, bulletins, printed matter, computer printouts, teletypes, invoices,
transcripts, diaries, analyses, returns, summaries, minutes, bills, accounts, estimates,
projections, comparisons, messages, correspondence, press releases, circulars, financial
statements, reviews, opinions, offers, studies and investigations, questionnaires and
surveys, and work sheets (and all drafts, preliminary versions, alterations, modifications,
revisions, changes, and amendments of any of the foregoing, as well as any attachments
or appendices thereto), and graphic or oral records or representations of any kind
(including without limitation, photographs, charts, graphs, microfiche, microfilm,
videotape, recordings and motion pictures), and electronic, mechanical, and electric
records or representations of any kind (including, without limitation, tapes, cassettes,
disks, and recordings) and other written, printed, typed, or other graphic or recorded
matter of any kind or nature, however produced or reproduced, and whether preserved in
writing, film, tape, disk, videotape, or otherwise. A document bearing any notation not a
part of the original text is to be considered a separate document. A draft or non-identical
copy is a separate document within the meaning of this term.

2. The term “communication” means each manner or means of disclosure or exchange of
information, regardless of means utilized, whether oral, electronic, by document or
otherwise, and whether in a meeting, by telephone, facsimile, mail, releases, electronic

3
message including email (desktop or mobile device), text message, instant message,
MMS or SMS message, message application, or otherwise.

3. The terms “and” and “or” shall be construed broadly and either conjunctively or
disjunctively to bring within the scope of this request any information that might
otherwise be construed to be outside its scope. The singular includes plural number, and
vice versa. The masculine includes the feminine and neutral genders.

4. The term “including” shall be construed broadly to mean “including, but not limited to.”

5. The term “Company” means the named legal entity as well as any units, firms,
partnerships, associations, corporations, limited liability companies, trusts, subsidiaries,
affiliates, divisions, departments, branches, joint ventures, proprietorships, syndicates, or
other legal, business or government entities over which the named legal entity exercises
control or in which the named entity has any ownership whatsoever.

6. The term “identify,” when used in a question about individuals, means to provide the
following information: (a) the individual’s complete name and title; (b) the
individual’s business or personal address and phone number; and (c) any and all
known aliases.

7. The term “related to” or “referring or relating to,” with respect to any given subject,
means anything that constitutes, contains, embodies, reflects, identifies, states, refers to,
deals with, or is pertinent to that subject in any manner whatsoever.

8. The term “employee” means any past or present agent, borrowed employee, casual
employee, consultant, contractor, de facto employee, detailee, fellow, independent
contractor, intern, joint adventurer, loaned employee, officer, part-time employee,
permanent employee, provisional employee, special government employee,
subcontractor, or any other type of service provider.

9. The term “individual” means all natural persons and all persons or entities acting on
their behalf.

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