LANCASTER COUNTY — Four former nurses at the UPMC Pinnacle hospital that was shuttered in February have filed a civil lawsuit seeking severance pay they claim they are owed, court documents show.
The lawsuit claims that after UPMC announced its plans to close the hospital, employees were told that those not given the chance to transfer to equivalent jobs at the health system’s Lititz hospital or another location within 30 miles would be eligible for severance pay. The four plaintiffs claim they lined up other jobs after being told in December they were being involuntarily terminated, according to the lawsuit.
But UPMC eventually offered them jobs after all, and said that declining the offer made the nurses ineligible for severance pay, the lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs’ attorney argued in a letter to UPMC dated Feb. 25 that the job offers were not made in writing and appear to be “nothing more than post hoc rationalizations by UPMC to deny (the nurses) severance benefits.”
The plaintiffs’ combined severance packages is less than $50,000, according to the lawsuit.
