Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Hundreds of Las Vegans may lose jobs at Medco

Medco Health Solutions will eliminate up to 650 jobs at one of its Las Vegas-area operations by the end of the year, the company said today.

New Jersey-based Medco operates an automated pharmacy in Las Vegas, where prescriptions are received and filled, and a call center in Henderson.

The cuts are planned at the pharmacy, which dispenses more than 850 types of drugs through mail-order prescriptions and retail pharmacies.

About 1,100 people are employed at the pharmacy now. About 800 are employed at the call center.

A spokeswoman for the company said the Las Vegas pharmacy's front-end operations, where prescriptions are received, processed and evaluated, will be relocated by Dec. 12. It is too early to know where the operations will move, Soraya Rodriguez, spokeswoman for Medco said.

Some pharmacist and supervisor jobs may also be eliminated, Rodriquez said.

The company does business nationwide with big operations in Ohio, New Jersey and Florida she said.

Most of Medco's 1,900 local employees, both full and part-time, have been working without a contract since Sept. 1, Rodriguez said.

About 1,100 of Medco's local employees are represented by Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (P.A.C.E.) Local 8-675.

David Campbell, union secretary/treasurer, said contract negotiations over the weekend scaled back the number of people to be laid off in the pharmacy unit, which receives and evaluates prescriptions, to 303 clerks.

He said another 80-100 pharmacists would be laid off with the balance of eliminated jobs in the pharmacy unit coming from managers and supervisors, he said.

Rodriguez said the decision on exactly which jobs will be eliminated has not been made.

Not including managers and supervisors, Medco would save about $20 million by cutting the clerk and pharmacist jobs, Campbell said.

Rodriguez said there is the possibility that far fewer jobs could be eliminated.

"There are opportunities to scale down the scope of the impact, as we explore other opportunities, tied to volume and management," she said.

The decision to eliminate prescription processing in Las Vegas is due to technology. Rodriguez said there are other plants where technology for receiving, processing and evaluating prescriptions is much more advanced than at its Las Vegas operation.

"To meet the growing demands of Medco's clients and members, we will use the advanced capacities that are already operating" she said. Campbell said in Las Vegas, clerks enter the prescriptions into a database and then send them onto a pharmacist who evaluates and fills them. At other Medco locations, the pharmacist both enters and evaluates the prescription, eliminating the need for a clerk, he said.

Campbell said P.A.C.E. negotiated a severance package for employees who will be laid off. He said the bargaining unit for the pharmacists will resume negotiations Oct. 30.

Rodriguez could not confirm the upcoming negotiation date, but did say a severance package would be negotiated and that contract talks did continue throughout the weekend. Rodriguez said the layoffs are not related to the expired contract.

Medco was spun off from its parent company, New Jersey-based Merck & Co. in late August and began trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange and was added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Merck is a drug manufacturer that is known for cholestrol-lowering drug Zocor, ulcer medicine Pepcid and arthritis remedy Vioxx.

"The decision was to drastically cut costs, which is not too unusual in spin offs or mergers," said Campbell, who expressed regret for the lost jobs.

He said the union is also working to obtain public assistance for those affected by the layoff announcements.

Rodriguez said a payroll tax passed by the Nevada Legislature was not a part of the discussion to reduce its Nevada workforce.

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