NEW YORK – Kentucky miners protesting unpaid wages during the bankruptcy case of coal company Blackjewel scored a win in court on Monday.

The company will hold some of the proceeds from the sale of coal mined in Harlan County, Kentucky, until workers there are paid, an attorney representing Blackjewel said in a hearing in Charleston, West Virginia. The move comes after Acting US Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella asked the court to halt the movement of coal from the mine until workers get June wages.

Blackjewel violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying miners for work done in June, making the approximately 100 train cars loaded with coal and sitting in Harlan County “hot goods", attorneys for the labor department wrote in a motion filed Monday morning.

“The portion of the payment that is, in the government’s view, attributable to the coal that is subject to the FLSA, we will not spend,” said Stephen Lerner, partner at Squire Patton Boggs US representing Blackjewel. “We will commit not to spend it.”

POLITICAL SUPPORT

The fate of employees is playing a bigger role in corporate bankruptcies as thousands of workers lose their jobs, and the issue has been embraced by some politicians and at least one presidential candidate. Dismissals caused by the collapse of Toys “R” Us Inc. triggered the initial uproar, and saving jobs became a key factor in keeping Sears Holdings Corp. out of liquidation.

Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have expressed support for the miners.

Judge Frank W. Volk said during the hearing – which some miners attended – that legal questions remain around the transport and sale of the coal. Volk may hear arguments on the issue as early as Tuesday and said the coal won’t move until the Labor Department motion is resolved.

Miners last week worked in shifts blocking railroad tracks to stop a train from leaving a Blackjewel-owned mine outside Cumberland, Kentucky. The railroad operator, CSX, eventually left the coal and removed the engines that were set to pull it.

At least 172 employees are owed wages of $664 000 or more for work done in June, according to court papers.

The case is Blackjewel, 3:19-bk-30289, US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia (Huntington).