Microchip Must Defend Class Action Over Atmel Workers’ Severance

Microchip Technology Inc. must face a 200-person class action by workers who say they’re owed severance in connection with the company’s 2016 acquisition of their former employer, according to a decision by the Northern District of California.

Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. on Monday certified a class of former Atmel Corp. employees who said Microchip failed to honor a severance plan Atmel adopted in 2015 while it searched for a merger partner.

The case can be resolved on a class-wide basis, even though some of the class members held more senior positions at Atmel, Gilliam, of the U.S. District Court ...