Employees of Central Florida company fear financial ruin after going weeks without pay

MELBOURNE, Fla. — Maxed out cards. Calls from creditors. Stomach-churning worries – with no end in sight.

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Employees of Melbourne-based Emerge Healthcare, LLC said they’ve been working for weeks without a paycheck as the company tries to keep itself financially afloat.

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“They keep saying that they’re trying to get money together to pay us and we still haven’t seen a penny,” one worker said.

Multiple employees said cracks emerged in the spring, when emails sent by company leaders said payroll would be late, citing funding issues.

It was around this time that they noticed they couldn’t use their health insurance benefits, despite paychecks showing premiums were still being withheld. Emails from company leaders explained that the plan had been suspended as of December, 2021 and they were working to reinstate it.

Documents show the company worked through its healthcare issue, allowing employees to file retroactively, and backpay – until finances again caught up to it in June.

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By July 8, CEO Lance Friedman told his team in an email that the company was losing $25,000 per day. Friedman said he was working with investors and planning a public offering of his company’s stock and he expected to have the funds for payroll “in the next 4-6 business days.”

The company completed its June 17 payroll on July 18, emails show.

Reached by phone Monday, Friedman downplayed the difficulty his business going through, but was candid about his efforts to save Emerge. He said a significant portion of the staff had been cut and his current operation resembled a “skeleton crew,” reducing payroll costs.

He explained that the future of his company wasn’t certain – though certainty is rare in the business world – but promised to pay employees and ex-employees everything they were owed within two or three days, or up to 10 for higher-ups.

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He also said he would have the money to pay his current health insurance provider’s bill to re-start the company benefits again.

Employees said they’ve heard that promise before.

“The employees are the basis of a company and they should not be treated this way,” one employee said. “You can’t expect the best from them if you’re not doing the best yourself.”

Mike Grossman, an employment attorney with Grossman Law, P.A., said the employees could have standing for a civil case against Emerge. While nothing is specifically spelled out in the Fair Labor Standards Act about when employees must be paid – Grossman said it was part of contract law and common law – Florida law allows workers to sue a company 15 days after giving notice that minimum wage standards weren’t met.

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“Any of these employees, the second it went three weeks, 30 days, more than a month where they haven’t been paid a single penny for money that they’re owed… I would have advised them to go talk to an attorney,” he said.

Grossman also flagged the promise to reinstate health benefits, especially if – as employees believed – their premiums were continuing to be withheld.

“Sometimes [insurance companies are] like, listen, we reinstated you twice before we aren’t doing this a third time,” he said. “Absolutely not a guarantee at all.”

He called wage issues a common problem in Central Florida, mostly with tipped workers. He acknowledged people’s desire to give their bosses the benefit of the doubt at first, but said a line had to be drawn. In Emerge’s case, he said the only thing that counted now was leaders squaring up.

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“The empty promises have had their chance, and it’s come and gone,” he explained.

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