Mississippi
Maximus call center in Hattiesburg, site of regular strikes, lays off 143 workers
Friday marks the final day of labor for 143 Maximus name middle workers in Hattiesburg who had been informed final week they now not have jobs.
Maximus mentioned overstaffing led to the choice to chop among the workforce dealing with requires the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers.
Workers have been organizing on the Hattiesburg location, usually holding protests over the past 10 months, calling for higher working situations, pay and well being care. Staff hope to ultimately type a union.
Staff deliberate to collect once more exterior the Hattiesburg workplace Friday afternoon in protest of the layoffs, which they are saying arrived with barely 10 days discover final week.
“Maximus can not probably declare that it treats its workers with respect and sensitivity when, as a billion-dollar company, it’s failing to supply sufficient discover of their termination or ample severance pay for employees to handle their households,” Tiandra Robinson, an organizer at Communications Staff of America, mentioned in a press release. “Disgrace on Maximus for pulling the rug out from below a whole bunch of people who find themselves already struggling to make ends meet.”
Maximus mentioned in a press release that “low attrition charges” resulted in “surplus staffing.” After the layoffs, the Hattiesburg workplace will make use of 787 employees who deal with a spread of telephone requires the federal authorities together with Medicare and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Staff final held a strike in November, throughout the begin of open enrollment for medical health insurance below the Inexpensive Care Act, when calls on the workplace surged. That protest attracted about 200 employees exterior the Hattiesburg workplace demanding higher working situations and higher insurance policies to deal with caller abuse.
Robinson mentioned this newest transfer by Maximus reveals why it’s necessary for employees to unionize to allow them to be higher protected against “arbitrary layoffs.”
“Each time we make staffing choices, we make it a precedence to deal with all of our folks with respect and sensitivity,” Maximus mentioned in a press release. “That’s the reason we’re coordinating with different Maximus packages the place distant positions could also be out there for impacted workers. We additionally will make sure that we contemplate these workers for different hiring wants if further workers is required sooner or later.”
The laid off employees weren’t given any severance, in line with Communications Staff of America.
Organizers say one other protest can be deliberate for Friday afternoon on the Maximus name middle in Bogalusa, La., which can be reducing jobs.
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