WHEELING – Three nurses, a pharmacist and pharmacy buyer who worked for the former Ohio Valley Medical Center claim the health care facility violated federal law by not providing its employees with 60 days' written notice before closing its operations.
Keith Reed, Lisa Dolence, Elizabeth Schenkel, Emily Wine and Mark Garan filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia against Alecto Healthcare Services LLC and Alecto Healthcare Services Wheeling LLC, doing business as Ohio Valley Medical Group and OVMC Physicians alleging violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN Act).
According to the complaint, the defendants filed a cease operations notice with the state's Dislocated Worker Unit on Aug. 8 stating that OVMC would no longer operate starting Oct. 7. However, the plaintiffs allege employees were sent a notice on Sept. 3 that OVMC would discontinue all acute and emergency medical services and later told not to report to work after Sept. 6.
The plaintiffs allege that the defendants violated the WARN Act by failing to give them 60 days' notice.
The plaintiffs seek an award of 60 days' back pay and benefits, a trial by jury and all other just relief. They are represented by Timothy Cogan of Cassidy, Cogan, Shapell & Voegelin Law Firm LC in Wheeling and Vincent Mersich, Maureen Davidson-Welling and John Stember of The Stember Cohn & Davidson-Welling Law Firm LLC in Pittsburgh.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number 5:19-CV-00263