Laid-off employees sue Univita Health

By: Marcia Heroux Pounds
Posted: Aug 3, 2015
Sun Sentinel

Univita Health, which laid off more than 1,000 employees last week, is being sued by employees who claim they were not given 60 days’ notice of the layoff.

Lead plaintiff . . . was fired as a senior business data analyst at Univita Health without notice on Tuesday, according to the lawsuit filed in Delaware District Court. His lawyers are seeking class action status *** to represent other Univita employees laid off without notice.

The workers are seeking 60 days’ wages and benefits – the period of notification time required for mass layoffs, the lawsuit said, citing the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

Univita, of Miramar, did make four filings with the state notifying it of layoffs, saying they will be completed by Aug. 12.

****

Lawyer Chrisopher Loizides and law firm Raisner Roupinian LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of Olivier and other Univita employees affected by the layoff.

Univita lost its HMO contracts after it told insurers it would no longer provide home health durable medical equipment or intravenous therapy for the state’s Medicaid patients, said Shelisha Coleman, a spokeswoman for the Florida Agency Health Care Administration.