Bloomberg, Facing Lawsuits, Agrees to Pay for Laid-Off Staffers’ Health Care Until November
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Billionaire Mike Bloomberg has agreed to pay for his former campaign staffers’ health care until November, following several lawsuits filed by laid off employees who alleged that workers were deprived of benefits that were promised to them until the presidential election, NBC News reports. “Given these extraordinary circumstances, the campaign will cover the cost of COBRA through November 2020,” an email from the Bloomberg campaign’s human resources reads. Bloomberg has been hit with multiple lawsuits since he dropped out of the race in March, including one from his former field organizer who alleged that thousands of workers were duped into jobs, not paid overtime, and subsequently laid off. The lawsuit argues that the campaign retracted “promised income and health-care benefits,” leaving workers “and their families potentially uninsured in the face of a global pandemic.”