Forum sends out notices about sale

Forum workers in Beeghly Medical Park acute-care facilities may be affected.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Forum Health has sent notices to employees “potentially impacted” by the sale of Beeghly Medical Park to Akron Children’s Hospital.

The federal WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act of 1989 requires that employers provide notice 60 days in advance of plant closings or mass layoffs.

What triggers a WARN notice, according to a U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, is if an employment site will be shut down causing an employment loss for 50 or more employees during any 30-day period.

Also, an employer must give WARN notice if there is to be a mass layoff which does not result from a plant closing, but which will result in a job loss during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees, or for 50 to 499 employees if they make up at least 33 percent of the active work force.

Here is Forum’s statement on the matter:

“In compliance with regulatory requirements, employees potentially impacted by the proposed purchase of the acute-care facilities of Beeghly Medical Park to Akron Children's Hospital have been sent WARN Act notices to notify them of possible work changes related to the sale.”

Officials of unions which represent employees at Beeghly are trying to determine what the WARN notice means to their members.

Jennifer Farmer, spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union Local 1199, declined to comment, saying the union might have a statement in the near future.

Nurses group

Linda Warino, director of the Ohio Nurses Association’s District 3, said she was in a meeting where a Forum executive said the transfer of some facilities at Beeghly would be accomplished before it is shut down for renovation by Akron Children’s, and that there would be no down time for those departments and employees.

The Forum notice specifically mentions acute care employees, which would indicate it might affect staff in the Beeghly emergency department and same-day surgery, Warino said.

At the press conference announcing the sale of Beeghly to Akron Children’s, Dr. Keith Ghezzi, interim president and chief executive officer at Forum, said the obstetrics and gynecology departments, and related women’s health services, such as the Center for Breast Health, would be relocated.

alcorn@vindy.com