San Francisco-based Dignity Health has rearranged jobs and avoided some layoffs announced last month at two California hospitals, union and hospital officials told the Ventura County Star.
The restructuring, announced in October, is taking place at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Calif., and St. John’s Pleasant Valley in Camarillo, Calif. Both hospitals are part of Dignity, which merged with Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives in February to form Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health.
About 30 employees at the hospitals were notified last month that their jobs were being eliminated. St. John's spokesperson Megan Maloney said hospital officials would try to move affected workers to other hospital roles for which they are qualified.
As of Nov. 25, 20 of the 23 affected Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West members had accepted other vacant positions at the hospitals. The remaining three workers retired and accepted 15 weeks of severance pay, a union spokesperson told the Star. The union represents certified nursing assistants, technicians and other employees.
Eight nurses represented by SEIU Local 121RN, including five critical care resource nurses, also received notification last month that their jobs would be eliminated. But the Star reports that after the union and hospitals negotiated, hospital leadership agreed to keep three critical care resource nurses at St. John's Pleasant Valley.
Adriane Carrier, a nurse and union steward at St. John's Regional, told the newspaper: "We feel confident we'll be able to save those two other [critical care resource nurse] jobs."
Other nurses affected by the restructuring were transferred to other positions at the hospitals.