SANTA MONICA : St. John’s to Give Ex-Workers Job Priority

After hearing complaints from employees, administrators at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center have modified their agreement with the 1,750 workers who lost their jobs Feb. 7 because of the facility’s earthquake damage.

Bruce Lamoureux, chief operating officer for St. John’s Hospital, told employees at a Sunday farewell gathering that they would be given priority for available jobs over other applicants when the hospital reopens. Also, he said, St. John’s employees who are rehired would retain their seniority.

Neither provision had been part of the employee agreement, according to Lamoureux.

The news was loudly applauded by a crowd of about 300. The crowd included some of the 250 employees retained for outpatient services as well as severed employees, some of whom have found new jobs and others who have not.

One who lost her job, Donni Esposti, a care coordinator with the hospital for 28 years, said she didn’t think the hospital had any choice but to do what it did.

“It’s never going to be the same,” she said. “We’re going to go down in beds. I’m sorry some of us lost our jobs, but we can reapply. I’m starting a new job Monday in home care.”

At the employee gathering, where hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, Cokes and cookies were served, former colleagues embraced one another and talked about job prospects and mulling over the latest conciliatory move by the administrators of a hospital most called “a family.”

Another former employee, who was nearly four months pregnant and carried her husband on her St. John’s health care plan, worried about paying her health insurance premium after the hospital stops paying it at the end of April.

The Sunday employees’ gathering came a day after St. John’s held another party for the public. There, hospital administrators and Santa Monica Mayor Judy Abdo assured those in attendance that the hospital would be doing business on an outpatient basis immediately and would eventually build a “better” care center for the community of Santa Monica.