Arbitrator: Laid-Off State Nursing Aides Get Severance

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - An arbitrator says Michigan must pay severance to eligible nursing aides who were laid off when the state privatized their jobs at a veterans home in western Michigan in 2013.

The ruling is a victory for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing the workers, and an additional cost the state hadn't factored in for the privatization move at the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs reports The Detroit Free Press.

How many of the 132 former workers will be eligible for severance pay and how much each will receive hasn't been determined.

The newspaper says last week's decision about the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans also could have implications for former state prison kitchen workers who lost their jobs to privatization in 2013.
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