BRUNSWICK, Maine — About 55 people had filtered through a second-floor room at Southern New Hampshire University by 10:30 a.m. Monday during the Maine Department of Labor job fair quickly organized after Merrymeeting Behavioral Health Care closed suddenly on April 1.
Approximately 60 percent of the attendees at Monday’s session identified themselves as being among 188 former employees of Merrymeeting, which announced on March 28 that it would stop seeing clients on April 8 and close altogether on April 22 due to proposed state changes in reimbursement rates for MaineCare clients.
But on April 1, employees received phone calls telling them they no longer had a job.
Department of Labor spokeswoman Julie Rabinowitz said last week that the Wage and Hour Division of the Bureau of Labor Standards “is looking into” complaints that former Merrymeeting Behavioral Health Associates’ employees were not paid for work they did.
Rabinowitz said the department’s efforts at outreach to laid-off workers had been stymied because they were unable to acquire a list of employees from Merrymeeting.
The Department of Labor hurriedly pulled together Monday’s job fair, and a department official said Monday that 36 of the 38 companies present were in the health care field.
Alison Fongemie of Maine Behavioral Health said she had spoken to quite a few former Merrymeeting employees seeking similar positions or looking to explore other options.
Haven Bichrest stood next to a SequelCare of Maine display handing out information about the company.
More than 50 former employees of Merrymeeting Behavioral Health are now employed at SequelCare of Maine, Bichrest said, including some managers.
Several former Merrymeeting employees who visited the job fair were unwilling to speak on the record Monday, but at least one said they were nervous about receiving a final paycheck from the company.
Many said they had heard that owner Jim Talbott of Bowdoinham planned to file for bankruptcy, although the U.S. Bankruptcy Court listed no filing under either Talbott’s name or Merrymeeting Behavioral Health Associates on Monday.
Another former employee said that while they were left without a job, they worried about former clients who they said were left in far more precarious circumstances.
“It’s been a disaster for them,” said one employee. “Some of them have no food. I’m scared for them.”