Howard Brown to provide $1 million in back pay to laid off workers as part of settlement

A group of employees laid off by Howard Brown Health will receive $1 million in back pay as part of a settlement the health center reached earlier this month with the National Labor Relations Board.

Under the settlement, announced Friday, Howard Brown also must pay the laid-off employees a total of $48,000 in 401(k) reimbursements and $60,000 in compensation for financial harm caused by the layoffs, according to the NLRB.

Howard Brown, the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ+ health center, also must offer to reinstate the laid-off employees, stop violating federal law regarding negotiating with the union and post notice of this online and at its facilities.

In its March 2024 complaint against Howard Brown, the NLRB alleged the company threatened and surveilled employees, refused to hand over information to the union and bypassed the union to try to negotiate with employees directly — in addition to laying off 55 employees without bargaining.

“This agreement represents an important step in our path to healing and moving forward as a united organization,” said Robin Gay, interim president and CEO of Howard Brown Health, in a statement.

Mera Flores, who had worked at the Sheridan office for nearly two years before being laid off, said she was happy with the settlement, but won't consider returning without changes in management.

“I just don’t trust them now. They just have people in charge who don’t care about the [queer] community, but care about money and how they look to the [queer] community," Flores said. "They’d all have to be gone for me to come back.”

Howard Brown Health previously said the initial layoffs in December 2022, which eliminated 61 union positions and four nonunion positions in December 2022, were needed to close an estimated $12 million budget gap attributed to changes in pharmaceutical legislation and the end of some COVID-19 assistance programs. A three-day strike ensued, bringing about 440 employees citywide to the picket line for the second time in two months.

During the layoff proposals, union leaders said they’d seen no evidence of the financial issues and had also found listings for jobs included in the layoffs on sites like LinkedIn, which a Sun-Times reporter was able to confirm.

The cuts included all drug abuse case managers at South Side locations, members of the gender-affirming care team for youth and 14 of the 15 members of the In Power team, which was dedicated to helping survivors of sexual assault navigate the healthcare and legal systems.

“There’s nothing like that now, not in the city, not in the Midwest,” Flores, a former member of the team, said.

A three-year contract was ratified in May after the resignation of former CEO and President David Munar and more than 17 months of negotiations.

Since then, the company closed two clinics in recent months and laid off 43 in a second round of layoffs this July — including 12 of the workers whose jobs were reinstated as part of a separate NLRB ruling — leaving Flores to wonder what the company got out of the nearly two-year ordeal.

“At the end of the day, they still have the union and we’re getting our money back," Flores said. "So all of this was for nothing."