RIVERVIEW, Fla. (WFLA) — Hundreds of health care workers for Maximus plan to go on strike Monday in Riverview.
They’ll join call center workers across the southeast demanding better pay and more opportunities in the workplace.
Maximus handles millions of calls about Obamacare, Medicare and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention info line. Last month, the company laid off 700 workers at facilities throughout Florida, Louisiana, Virginia and Mississippi.
Workers are demanding protection against lay-offs, $25 per hour pay and opportunities for career advancement. Strategically, the strike is planned as millions could be pushed off Medicaid and need assistance navigating the federal market.
Maximus employee Dedra Dawes says, “I have a lot of experience and I feel like we should be treated and compensated for the work we do. We’re essential workers but we’re not treated with the respect we should have.” She adds, “We have families that we want to support and it makes it very difficult to live and survive when they do things like this.”
Maximus Statement
Maximus welcomes the opportunity to engage directly with our employees and work together to resolve their concerns. We respect our employees’ legal right to attempt to organize, and any information we provide is designed to help them make an informed decision about union representation.
Our employees are engaged and motivated to deliver high-quality customer service to millions of Americans. With competitive wages and benefits, our employees believe Maximus is a great place to work. We know this because we have historically lower attrition rates than normal.
Additionally, our most recent employee engagement survey shows that 84% of our employees plan to stay with the company for at least another 12 months. Over the past several years, Maximus has improved pay and compensation, reduced employees’ out-of-pocket health care expenses and improved work processes and safety. We continue to look for ways to assure that Maximus is an employer of choice.
Our people want to work for Maximus and their passion is making a difference. They consistently provide high-quality service and demonstrate deep knowledge about the programs we support. Thanks to our employees’ performance, we continue to provide the best customer experience to the American public when they need help navigating government programs.