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MARTINS FERRY – A Moundsville-based law firm filed a class action lawsuit against East Ohio Regional Hospital, claiming the hospital began mass layoffs before shuttering without notice, leaving hundreds of healthcare workers without jobs and many without weeks of pay.

Medical malpractice and insurance dispute lawyer Michelle Marinacci is heading the suit at Gold, Khourey and Turak. She said the firm started receiving calls from concerned employees and working on the lawsuit when the hospital began a series of layoffs several weeks before its March 21 closure.

GKT then reached out to the law firm of Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox in Columbus, Ohio, because of their expertise in employment law. EORH owner and CEO Dr. John Johnson is also based in Columbus.

“They saw merit to these cases so we started talking to them and teaming up with them to see what we could do to help out the employees,” Marinacci said.

As of Monday afternoon, Marinacci said more than 50 former EORH employees had reached out to opt into the lawsuit.

A main claim, according to the lawsuit, is that Johnson did not provide the federally required 60-day notice to employees that the facility would be closing in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Hospital leadership could have easily anticipated the closure and layoffs, Marinacci said, but instead, the lawsuit claims Johnson and hospital administrators encouraged employees to continue working and...

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