967 Layoff Notices Given To Hospital Employees In Bayonne

JERSEY CITY, NJ — A month after new owners of a Jersey City hospital shut the facility's last department, they have submitted documentation to the state to lay off 967 employees at a different hospital.

A company spokesperson said Monday that the notices were merely procedural.

Hudson Regional Health, based in Secaucus, will issue notices to nearly 1,000 employees of Bayonne Medical Center by June 29, according to WARN notices filed with the state this month.

The company owns Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, and recently took over Bayonne, Christ Hospital in Jersey City, and Hoboken University Hospital after their prior owner filed for bankruptcy.

After Hudson Regional Health took over the three facilities in summer, they said Christ Hospital — renamed Heights University Hospital — would have to close due to lack of funding. They had kept the emergency room open until last month, then closed that, too.

Hudson Regional Health spokesman Vijay Chaudhuri told Patch on Monday that the notices for Bayonne Medical Center staff are just a formality related to the new ownership and that they won't result in actual layoffs.

He said that the company has told the Bayonne employees that they will not be laid off.

"HRH has reassured staff this ongoing process currently involves a transfer of ownership, license, and operating business," he said Monday, "which triggered a legal requirement of a WARN notice as Bayonne’s employees will be transitioned to HRH’s new ownership. HRH does not anticipate any layoffs in June."

He added, "Over the past 15 months, HRH has invested tens of millions of dollars to enhance care at Bayonne University Hospital. HRH remains fully committed to advancing the hospital as a premier acute-care facility in the tri-state region."

But a union for the nurses and other health workers said Monday that they were frustrated with this response.

"Once again Hudson Regional Health has sown uncertainty and confusion in the Bayonne community and among healthcare workers at Bayonne Medical Center by issuing over 900 layoff notices to every staff member," said a statement from the Health Professional and Allied Employees.

Union spokesperson Michael Allen told Patch that employees have already received notices.

"Despite HRH's claims that they filed a WARN notice merely as a precautionary step during corporate restructuring, HPAE is taking this threat very seriously," the statement said. "This is an employer that refuses to follow law and has gone back on its word to workers, to the union and to the communities where its facilities operate several times over the past year."

Bayonne Medical Center is an acute care hospital in Hudson County with 205 beds.

READ MORE: Hospital In Jersey City To Close For Good On Sunday