It’s hard to sink lower than the courthouse auction of a deed, but The Greenbrier resort, owned by Gov. Jim Justice and run by Justice and his adult children, might actually be in more trouble than anyone thought.
As the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. tries to halt the auction of Justice’s Greenbrier resort, scheduled for early next week, reports have surfaced alleging the luxury destination hasn’t been making payments to the company that insures health care benefits for its 2,000 or so employees over the past four months.
The story adds to the pile of reported financial dysfunction at the resort, including the defaulted $142 million loan that is prompting the attempt to auction off the Greenbrier Hotel, a reported debt of $2.2 million in unpaid property taxes and liens placed on the property over collected sales taxes of about $2.75 million that have not been remitted to the state.
This latest development is a new low, especially considering the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. cites its importance as an employer and financial driver in the community in its injunction filing to halt the auction, according to reports from MetroNews and The Real WV.
The news must also come as a shock to employees, because their employer reportedly has been taking the money for health insurance premiums out of their checks the whole time, but not handing that money over to the health insurance provider, the Amalgamated National Health Fund.
The insurer claims it is owed $2.4 million in unpaid premium collections and that another $1.2 million is due soon. If the insurer isn’t paid, it will be unable to provide coverage for employee health care costs, possibly leaving 2,000 people in a lurch.
It’s happened at other businesses owned by Justice. In fact, the Gazette-Mail has reported on coverage lapses for retired miners who worked for Justice-owned coal companies that were behind on premium payments. That’s pretty low, especially for someone who campaigns on being pro coal miner. But to use employees as human shields in an injunction filing while taking their money and not remitting it to cover their health benefits seems just as bad, if not a tad worse.
The reason those payments aren’t being handed over is anyone’s guess, although it’s not hard, given everything else happening around the resort and many of Justice’s other businesses, to imagine meeting financial obligations is a bit of a problem right now. Still, this is money taken from employees for the singular purpose of providing health insurance. If the provider hasn’t been paid because the whole operation is in disarray, that’s one thing. If those funds are being used for something other than their intended purpose, well, that’s an even bigger problem.
At the end of the day, these employees need to be treated properly, even with all of the turmoil surrounding the resort. The Greenbrier Hotel Corp. might not be signing employees’ checks if the auction proceeds, but that doesn’t mean a new owner is going to shut the place down or jettison half the staff. In fact, because things are so uncertain right now, employees at least deserve health care benefits that work. It’s their money, after all.
