UNION SPRINGS, Ala. (WSFA) – A prison healthcare contractor whose $1 billion deal with the Alabama Department of Corrections was canceled after it failed to pay workers on time has now filed for bankruptcy.
YesCare sought Chapter 11 protection Friday in federal court in Florida, listing up to $500 million in liabilities and an estimated $50 million to $100 million in assets. Court records show at least 200 Alabama-based creditors, including medical practices, hospitals and ambulance services across the state.
YesCare employees have now gone more than two weeks without pay- and no timeline on when or if their paychecks will be issued.
“Basically, we haven’t heard from YesCare,” Janetha Oliver, an Licensed practicing nurse and the Bullock County Correctional Faclilty said. “At first, they were telling us that we’re going to get paid on Monday, and then they’ll tell us we’ll get paid on Tuesday. Now they just ain’t saying anything.”
Oliver says the company’s silence is concerning, and she’s worried she will never see the pay she is due for two weeks of work.
“There’s a concern because it’s basically everybody’s putting it back to YesCare,” Oliver said. “But you guys authorized YesCare to have this contract in the 1st place. We are still your employees. So, overall, you’re still responsible for making sure we get paid.”
It’s not the first time employees have been paid late.
“They were late paying us the last two weeks,” Mary Burks, the sick call nurse at the Bullock County Correctional Facility, said. “Then we had to wait until that following Tuesday to get paid that time. So this was their last paycheck that they were supposed to have paid us this time. And so nobody’s telling us anything about our pay. Nothing.”
As gas prices continue to trend upward, Oliver says she simply can’t afford to skip a paycheck.
“We have bills that we need to pay,” she said. “We have homes that we’re trying to pay for our vehicles, gasoline, especially with the prices at what they are right now. It’s taking dang dear $90, 70 to $90 to fill up this vehicle that I drive two or three times a week, and we don’t have money to do it.”
Burks says Oliver isn’t the only one struggling to make ends meet in the absence of a paycheck.
“A couple of people at work have lost their cars,” she said. “They’re overdrafting their bank. They ain’t got the money to put it in, put it in there, and I don’t think it’s fair for us to keep working without a paycheck.”
With YesCare’s bankruptcy, employees don’t know who is responsible for issuing their pay.
“This other company took over, but they don’t feel like they’re responsible for paying us this last check,” Burks said. “I feel like the state should step in and pay us since they gave them the contract.”
As of right now, employees continue to go to work, though they don’t know when their next check will arrive, or if they will ever receive their missing check.
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