Laid Off Workers

What animal-lover hasn't daydreamed about developing a product or service that will become as popular as Kitty Litter -- and even half as profitable?Most of us choose the safe route and keep the job that pays the mortgage.Patti Moran didn't have that option when she started her pet-sitting business a decade ago. When her corporate job with its comfortable salary was eliminated, she found herself unemployed at 29, with no decent prospects."If anyone had told me then that losing my job was a blessing in disguise, I wouldn't have believed them," she says.

An article Wednesday incorrectly reported the name of the labor group pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of 112 Baltimore County employees laid off in February 1993 by County Executive Roger B. Hayden. The Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees now represents the employees.The Sun regrets the error.The twisting legal trail that Baltimore County's laid-off workers are following in trying to regain their jobs got even more convoluted yesterday in county Circuit Court.Judge John F. Fader II, who has been considering two parallel suits filed by two groups of former workers since mid-July, said he will:* Send the cases of 13 workers back for a rehearing before the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board.

ANNAPOLIS -- A Baltimore County circuit judge has ruled that the state violated the constitutional rights of two employees it laid off last year by denying them notification and "bumping" rights required by law.The ruling, which state officials say they will appeal to Maryland's highest court, appears to contradict a ruling this summer by an Anne Arundel County circuit judge in a similar case involving the firing of about 100 state employees.How Maryland's Court of Appeals ultimately resolves the two cases could affect the lives of hundreds of people laid off during Maryland's budget crisis during the past two years.

A Union leader said steel workers who will lose their jobs with the closing of the American National Can Co. at Sparrows Point can take some comfort in a generous severance package and pension benefits."

COLLEGE PARK -- Come January, Desiree Jefferson faces the loss of the clerical job she held at the University of Maryland for 22 years and the health insurance she relied on for herself and her two teen-age children."

Northrop Grumman Corp., which earlier this year acquired the Linthicum-based defense arm of Westinghouse Electric Corp., said yesterday that it was a "misunderstanding involving a few individuals" that it had a policy against hiring laid-off Westinghouse workers.Jack Martin, a Northrop Grumman spokesman, said the company has corrected the misunderstanding, and he stressed that there is no policy that bars laid-off Westinghouse workers from applying for job openings.Northrop Grumman's action came a day after engineers William Garry and Ali Ahmed, who were laid off in January, complained to The Sun that they were being told by human resources officials that they couldn't apply for externally advertised positions because of an unwritten corporate policy against the hiring of laid-off Westinghouse workers.

General Motors Corp. wants Maryland to halt payments of unemployment benefits to about 3,000 union workers at its Southeast Baltimore van assembly plant who were laid off last month as a result of strikes at two GM parts plants in Flint, Mich.The local development comes as GM is indicating that it may drop some low-profit cars if United Auto Workers' strikes continue into August.The No. 1 automaker had asked the state Office of Unemployment Insurance to either reconsider its June 12 decision to pay the benefits to the laid-off workers at the Broening Highway plant or it will appeal to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

I worked for a unionized company that laid off 30 of us last year. When we received the layoff notice, it said we would be on a callback list for three years. My co-workers and I never got a call. Yet the company recently held an open house for new hires. Is this legal? It depends. Perhaps the company is hiring in different job classifications, said lawyer Jeffrey Schlossberg of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek in Uniondale, N.Y. But then again, maybe not. If you suspect the new positions are the same jobs you and your former co-workers held, the first thing you must do is read the union contract to determine your "recall rights," Schlossberg said.

Sigrid Kingsbury lost her job recently as a real estate manager, and like many laid-off workers she opted to continue health insurance coverage under her old employer's plan. And like many, the Severna Park resident was in for a shock. She used to pay $104 a month for medical, dental and vision coverage while working. Now, she must also pay her ex-employer's share of the premiums. Her cost will jump to $517 a month - for medical coverage only. That's about one-third of her monthly unemployment benefits.

Julie Runyan never imagined going back to the insurance company that laid her off from her human resources job about a year ago. But Monday, Runyan said she found herself returning to the company's offices for her first day of work. She filled out paperwork in the same human resources office where she had worked for 12 years, this time taking a "new" job as a business analyst. "I saw so many smiles, and people were excited to see me," said Runyan, 39, of Johnston, Iowa. "Going to a brand new job, I wouldn't get, `Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?