Exempla Ordered to Pay Severance

nightingale, RN · May 28, 2002

It is good to read about justice done:

http://www.denverpost.com/framework/0%2C1918%2C36%257E33%257E609577%2C00.html#

Exempla ordered to pay severance

Jobs lost when home-care branch sold

By Tom McGhee

Denver Post Business Writer

Tuesday, May 14, 2002 - A federal judge has ordered Exempla Healthcare to pay severance to former employees who lost their jobs when the company sold its home-care department to the Colorado Visiting Nurse Association.

Rose Mary DeLisa and Diana Link said Exempla reneged on a pledge to grant the severance package or get them jobs that paid as much as those they lost when the department was sold in 2000.

The nurses association offered the pair jobs at 10 percent less than they made with Exempla, said their attorney, Evan Lipstein.

"Exempla had a severance plan in effect which said that an employee laid off due to a reduction in force would be entitled to severance pay unless offered a comparable position," he said.

DeLisa is owed $16,500, and Link $20,000, Lipstein said.

The nurses association first offered DeLisa a job at the same pay she made with Exempla. The company later reduced the offer.

"The administrator denied benefits on the basis that any offer made by the VNA was a comparable position . . . Such an interpretation would permit Exempla to deny benefits where the VNA offered a nominal salary or one which fell below the requisite minimum-wage requirement," U.S. District Judge Daniel Sparr wrote in the opinion filed in U.S. District Court in Denver last week.

Exempla spokeswoman Pat Barker said the company doesn't comment on personnel issues.