Legal Help: My job filed bankruptcy

JohnnyDaJackal · 03-10-09, 08:32

As the title says, looking to see if anyone here has any expertise on this. The hospital I work for just filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. Everyone saw it coming as the hospital has been losing tons of money with charity cases, unsold properties, etc. I'm just wondering If I officially lost all my vacation/personal/sick time? The hospital seems to be downplaying this quite a bit, and keeps saying, 'we're going to do some reorganizing', but I'm not optimistic. I feel it will be taken over by another company, probably by the neighboring larger hospital. I'm just wondering what I should be expecting, or what will probably come?

Thing that sucks is I work on an off-site so nobody really knows whats going on at all. I feel my department will be taken over by someone rather quickly since I work in a PCR (psychiatric community residence) for adolescents and theres only a handful in NJ. I'm just thankful that I wasn't planning on doing this my whole life, as I plan on teaching next September. I really feel bad for my uncle who most likely will lose his pension, and he was only 2 years away from retiring.

NorthJersey.com: Visitors, patients shocked by hospital bankruptcy

jdoria · 03-10-09, 08:45

What is the message from HR?

JohnnyDaJackal · 03-10-09, 08:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdoria

What is the message from HR?

I haven't heard anything official from HR or the hospital. I also was off yesterday and today. I hope to hear more tomorrow since I have a staff meeting. The hospital is known for moving extremely slow with things like this.

BigAl3 · 03-10-09, 09:21

sorry to hear about this john, hopefully things will turn out okay in the end...

RonMexico · 03-10-09, 01:19

I'm not a bankruptcy lawyer so I am no expert.

However, chapter 11 is business reorganization with protection from the courts. When a company gets into really rough times (generally speaking) and can no longer service its debt or pay creditors, they usually file CH 11 in order to do a debt work out (i.e. restructure payments, discharge some debt, etc.).

Chapter 11 does not mean the company is going out of businss (yet). Chapter 7 is when you really have to worry because that is liquidation...

If you recall, many of the airlines in the U.S. filed Chapter 11 shortly after 9/11 because of a number of issues.

As long as they have not made a formal announcement regarding employee's vacation, sick time, etc. then you should be ok. However, that is not to say they are not contemplating it.

As for pensions being eliminated, it generally depends on how vested the hospital is in their pension plan among other factors. The pension may also be taken over by the government run pension adminstrator (forget the aconym at the moment) and at which point most retiree's only get a % of what they were owed.