FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice said the owners of the now closed Fairmont Regional Medical Center may have violated both state and federal law on its way out the door.
Justice said Alecto missed a deadline to pay money owed to hospital employees in Fairmont.
“I am calling on state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to immediately begin an investigation into Alecto because these hardworking healthcare workers do not deserve to be treated like this,” Justice tweeted late Friday night.
I am calling on @MorriseyWV to immediately begin an investigation into Alecto because these hardworking healthcare workers do not deserve to be treated like this. #WV #WVGov
— Governor Jim Justice (@WVGovernor) March 27, 2020
Alecto closed the doors at Fairmont Regional March 19. Alecto executives met with members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 and told them their wages would not be paid and their health care would not be extended, West Virginia Director for SEIU District 1199 Joyce Gibson told MetroNews.
“What they owed them they refused to give them,” Gibson said. “As far as earned benefit time, their vacation, holidays, tuition reimbursement, the things like that, their 401k match and they literally told them they weren’t going to pay it.”
SEIU 1199, which represents more than 300 employees who worked at Fairmont Regional, is planning a lawsuit.
“We are outraged, outraged over this,” Gibson said.
More than 600 doctors, nurses and staff received 60-day layoff notices in late February. Alecto stayed for only a month instead of the 60 days.
Gibson said it’s difficult to understand how a health care company can walk out on a community especially during the current coronavirus crisis.
“At a time needed most for hospitals, during this COVID-19 epidemic, they just shut their doors, literally. It’s unbelievable,” Gibson said.
Gibson believes there’s also equipment in the closed hospital that could help the state during the current public health emergency.
Justice has previously said the equipment is tied to “a bunch of liens” and probably would be difficult to obtain.
Justice has worked with WVU Medicine which has agreed to take over the emergency department the hospital building within a month with plans to build a permanent smaller hospital after gaining a Certificate of Need from the state. Mon Health also plans to file for a CON with plans for a Fairmont-area hospital.