Employees at Health Net of the Northeast reacted glumly Thursday after company officials told them the Shelton office will close starting in January.
The closure will result in 750 layoffs by 2012.
“Not too many people are smiling here today,” said Tory Harmon, a mailroom employee of the insurance firm who lives in Trumbull. He was leaving work at 5 p.m.
“It’s sad. All of a sudden the jobs are gone,” Harmon said.
News spread quickly through the state after the Department of Labor posted a notice on its website.
The company said in a prepared statement it will provide 60-days notice of a worker’s layoff date, as well as what it called a “generous” severance package. The company also promised outplacement services.
Affected employees also have an opportunity to apply for jobs within Health Net and UnitedHealthCare, which bought Health Net last year and announced months ago it would take Health Net out of the northeast market.
The layoffs will continue through March 2012. There are no unions at the company.
Mailroom employee Matt Pittone of Bridgeport said he’ll be joining the ranks of unemployed workers looking for a new job.
“It’s not good,” Pittone said, as he stopped to talk with reporters on his way home from work.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. paid about $510 million to buy rival Health Net Inc.‘s operations in the northeastern U.S., according to published reports. The plan includes 578,000 plan members in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
The facility is an expansive one, and will be attractive to other companies, said an optimistic Mayor Mark A. Lauretti, reached by telephone to comment on the company announcement.
“I’ve known this was coming for a year. They were bought out by another company and it is unfortunate for the people who are involved but that is the business world, that is the reality of life,” Lauretti said.
“When they leave there will be another company that wants to be there,” Lauretti said of the building at 1 Far Mill Crossing. “If they don’t come to Shelton, Connecticut, they won’t go any place because we have the quality of life and we have the costs under control. It’s a beautiful location.”
