2 Fired for Staying Home During Violence

When hospital dietetic employee Linda Savage left work the day after the riots began, she was startled and frightened to find signs of civil unrest close to her office at Inglewood’s Centinela Hospital Medical Center.

Stores were being looted on nearby Prairie Avenue, and a car full of men yelled insults at her passing car, she said.

“I knew on the way home that I couldn’t go back the next day. It was just way too scary,” said Savage.

So the 26-year-old Bellflower resident said she called her supervisor to explain she would not be at work the next day.

In turn, she said, the hospital fired her.

“I felt really betrayed,” said Savage, who had been honored in March by Centinela Hospital as an “Employee of the Month” with a sweat shirt, certificate and $400 bonus.

Another hospital dietetic technician, Liz Nugent, 30, of Torrance, said she was fired that Friday after telling her boss she was fearful of coming to work.

Nugent said she was given the same ultimatum as Savage even after explaining that she feared for her own safety and that of her 10-month-old son, whose Hawthorne day-care center closed because of the riots.

Officials at three other hospitals that treated hundreds of people injured in the riots--Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center and St. Francis Medical Center--said they did not punish employees who were afraid to come to work during the tumultuous days.

Centinela Hospital spokeswoman Chris Kishida said she could not comment on the specifics of why Savage and Nugent were fired at the 403-bed hospital near the Forum in Inglewood.

But she defended the hospital’s personnel policies, saying that many employees “not required for patient care,” such as those in personnel and accounting, were asked to stay home during the riots. She said the hospital has set up an assistance program for employees who suffered losses during the riots and even paid for lodging for an employee whose home was damaged by fire.

In a written statement issued Tuesday, Stephen R. Barker, the hospital’s vice president of personnel, said: “In emergency situations it is imperative that patient-care employees report to work due to the importance of their positions.”

This week, Nugent was contacted by the Daniel Freeman hospital organization, which heard about her plight and wants to interview her for a current opening, said Robert Bokern, vice president of human resources for Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood and Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey.