Southeastern Michigan Health Association Has Mass Layoff Action

Southeastern Michigan Health Association is probably not a name you know much about, unless you live in the local area and you have a serious health condition. For those of you who are not in that situation here is a look at how the organization chooses to describe itself, “ SEMHA was incorporated in 1956 as the Southeastern Michigan Tuberculosis Detection Project. It operated mainly in the area of tuberculosis control through 1971. In 1972, with the broadening of its charter, SEMHA embarked on its current mission. The Southeastern Michigan Health Association, authorized by its member health departments, has served as a financial management agent for a multitude of programs and activities. It has proven to be an innovative mechanism for facilitating the delivery of health services, particularly for programs which operate in more than one jurisdiction. SEMHA has become a major forum for sharing and discussing public health issues that are of mutual concern to the member health officers…”

Well apparently the Southeastern Michigan Health Association is dealing with some fiscal issues, because they are getting ready to layoff 102 workers in order to set the budget to right. That is more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal laws. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

The job cuts are impacting just under twenty percent of the staff at the agency. These cuts are because of some serious cuts that the Detroit city major has made to his budget, and some of the funding cut goes to this agency. For those of you who missed out on the serious cuts being made to the city of Detroit. For those of you who missed out on that coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “W e have talked about the serious fiscal issues being faced by the city of Detroit in the past, but in the past our talk about the jobs cuts to come has mostly been in theory. Today we have some information right from the horse’s mouth.  Dave Bing, the mayor for the city of Detroit has finally laid out an official budget that is designed to set right the fiscal crater that the city currently finds itself in.

The budget is designed to trim out about $250 million from the budget for the city. Sadly one of those cost cutting measures will require letting go of city workers. Roughly 2,500 workers will have to be given the pink slip in order for this plan to work out.” So if things keep going badly more cuts may be coming down the pike for the organization.