Xtend Healthcare Facing WARN Act Class Action After Mass Layoff of NJ COVID Vaccination Call Center Workers

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A proposed class action alleges Xtend Healthcare and Staff Management Solutions violated a federal law when they laid off more than 400 workers around April 2022 without providing at least 60 days’ advance notice.

The 13-page case alleges Xtend, a subsidiary of Navient Corporation, and Staff Management Solutions owe the terminated employees 60 days’ worth of wages and benefits for their alleged violations of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and a similar New Jersey law.

According to the complaint, Xtend and Staff Management Solutions, who assisted the healthcare company with recruiting, training, managing and paying its employees, operated New Jersey’s virtual COVID-19 vaccination call center as part of the state’s efforts to manage the pandemic.

The plaintiff, a New Jersey resident, says she worked for the defendants since March 15, 2021 as a bilingual customer service representative and was responsible for helping callers schedule vaccination appointments, answering questions about the registration systems, referring callers to help lines and resources, placing reminder calls for potential second-dose vaccination recipients and providing other services related to the state’s vaccine scheduling system.

Per the suit, the defendants informed the plaintiff and other employees in early 2022 that their employment would continue for a year. However, around February 24, roughly 400 call center employees were terminated without notice, according to the case. The lawsuit relays that the plaintiff and others were told on April 5 that they would be terminated effective April 7. The plaintiff says that prior to her termination, she was never informed that her job would be ending soon.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants, as a joint-employer with more than 100 employees who collectively worked at least 4,000 hours per week, exclusive of overtime, were subject to the federal WARN Act, which requires employers to provide workers with at least 60 days’ notice prior to a mass layoff or plant closing at a single site. Per the case, the defendants’ termination of more than 400 workers around April 2022 qualifies as a mass layoff or plant closing.

The plaintiff looks to represent similarly situated former employees who worked in the Xtend Healthcare and Staff Management Solutions call center and were terminated without cause on or around April 7, 2022.

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