Alecto agrees to pay $240K in paid time off

The owner of the closed Fairmont Regional Medical Center agreed to pay more than $240,000 in paid-time-off benefits to hospital workers at the former 207-bed health care facility.

Fairmont Regional was closed in March after its owner, California-based Alecto Healthcare, failed to find a buyer and publicly disclosed it had lost $19 million in the last three years.

The hospital, the only full-service hospital in Marion County, employed 600.

The payment covers lost paid time off for certified nurse assistants, support nurses and support staff represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a news release. Morrisey’s office and the union are still trying to recover nearly $11 million in health care costs and pension benefits.

Both Morrisey and the union claim Alecto violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, which requires employers with 100 or more workers to provide a 60-day notice of closure or mass layoffs. The 60-day mark for Fairmont Regional would have been April 18.

“Alecto and every company operating in West Virginia must follow the law,” Morrisey said in a statement. “I am pleased our actions have helped lead to the recovery of lost benefits for additional workers at Fairmont Regional.”

Earlier this month Morrisey’s office was able to secure $844,342 for members of the Service Employees International Union District 1199 WV/KY/OH.

State code, Morrisey’s office has said, compels an employer to pay a discharged employee wages earned on or before the next regular pay day. Employers must also pay accrued fringe benefits according to the relevant agreements with workers. Violations could entitle employees to two times the unpaid amount in addition to their earned wages and benefits.

“Our members have always put patient care first and now Alecto needs to pay nearly $11 million in health care costs and pension benefits that are owed,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

“This company has damaged this community and our members with their lack of ability to properly operate Fairmont General Hospital,” he said.

Separately, WVU Medicine applied for a Certificate of Need with the West Virginia Health Authority to develop a 10-bed hospital inside Fairmont Regional as an arm of J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital. Also, WVU filed a second CON with the state to construct a 25-bed, full-service hospital next to its Urgent Care facility.

Mon Health, meanwhile, is seeking a CON from the state to build a 10-bed hospital on property it owns along Interstate 79 in Pleasant Valley.

Both health care systems announced plans for Fairmont after Alecto said it would close Fairmont Regional.

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