Judge Orders Halt to County Worker Layoffs : Civil service: Jobs in the registrar-recorder’s office, ordered trimmed in a budget shortfall, are saved temporarily.

Los Angeles County workers won a temporary restraining order Friday preventing widespread layoffs at the registrar-recorder’s office until a court hearing next week, when a judge will also consider a similar plea by county health care workers facing dismissal.

Last month, the county announced it planned to lay off employees to help cut its $1-billion budget deficit, and on Friday pink slips were sent to 107 Health Services Department employees.

Earlier this week, Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about half the county’s 80,000 employees, filed a lawsuit to halt layoffs in both departments, arguing that officials have rushed to dismiss employees instead of matching them with openings in other departments.

Union officials also argued in court that temporary employees, who are shouldering the brunt of the layoffs, should have been protected by county laws that give them permanent status at the end of their first year of employment.

The union’s arguments apparently swayed a Superior Court judge Friday, temporarily saving 75 jobs in the registrar-recorder’s office, which oversees elections in the county. About 50 of those positions were classified as “temporary,” although the employees have worked for the county for more than one year, union officials said.

“This really boosts my spirits,” union spokesman Dan Savitch, said after the ruling, “because it’s essentially the same argument we are making on behalf of the health workers.”

When union representatives return to court Tuesday, they will ask that the layoffs be blocked, at least until county officials prove that the job cuts are legal.

At the Health Services Department, a spokeswoman said that, despite the layoff notices, administrators are trying to reduce the number of cuts by finding employees jobs in other county departments.

“Even now, we’re continuing to work on it,” said spokeswoman Toby Staheli.

For example, at county hospitals, administrators have been considering transferring employees from obstetrical units, where the patient load has been declining, to outpatient clinics, where demand is up.

Of the 107 layoffs proposed for the Health Services Department, 51 are permanent employees and 56 are classified as temporary workers. Fourteen other employees are to be shifted to lower positions in other areas, according to a county report released Friday.

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In both county departments, plans for layoffs have been met with anger by employees. On Thursday, about 200 employees briefly walked off their jobs at the register-recorder’s offices in Norwalk.

At the Health Services Department, which faces a $600-million budget shortfall, officials originally had planned to lay off 1,200 workers in county hospitals and health clinics, but at the insistence of the Board of Supervisors, they were able to pare the number down.

“We’ve been able to get the number down a lot so far, and we’re still hoping, like everyone else, that there won’t be any need for layoffs,” said Ron Hansen, health deputy to Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

The county’s budget crisis stems from a decision by federal health officials to deny a claim by the county for about $641 million in Medi-Cal reimbursements. The county had included the disputed funds in its 1994-95 budget.