First County Health Layoffs to Take Effect : Government: Most of 3,200 workers involved will be fired or demoted this weekend. At Olive View in Sylmar, 499 will be cut.

In the largest layoffs in Los Angeles County history, 3,200 county health care workers will lose their jobs or be demoted, a majority of them this weekend, because of the county’s worst-ever fiscal crisis.

About 1,600 permanent employees will be laid off, about 1,000 temporary employees will be released and 653 employees will be demoted and see their pay reduced. Most of the layoffs and demotions will become effective Sunday, although today is the last day of work for many. The remainder will be effective at the end of the month.

A broad array of health workers are affected, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians and custodians who were handed pink slips Sept. 15.

At Olive View/UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, a total of 499 employees, including 311 temporary workers, will be given pink slips. At High Desert Hospital in Lancaster, 102 employees--including 78 permanent staff members--are scheduled to lose their jobs.

“It is very painful,” said the county’s personnel chief, Mike Henry. “I think it’s the largest layoff in the county’s history.”

The layoffs are the first wave in an inevitable downsizing of the nation’s second-largest public health system, the vast network of hospitals, health centers and community clinics that serve millions of county residents who are poor or have no health insurance.

“It’s a significant first step,” Henry said. “This is the first step in getting that house in order.”

“These layoffs are shameful,” said Gil Cedillo, general manager of the Service Employees International Union, Local 660, which represents about half the county’s work force. “The county has been unwilling to pursue real alternatives to all these firings.”

For the employees, the past month has been an emotional roller coaster.

In mid-September, when the first round of layoff notices were handed out, the crisis in the health system was threatening to force closure of all of the county’s comprehensive health centers, most of its community clinics and possibly the nation’s biggest public hospital, County-USC Medical Center.

But just when the situation looked the worst, marathon negotiations in Washington produced agreement among federal, state and county representatives on a rescue package for Los Angeles. The $364-million federal bailout announced in Santa Monica late last month by President Clinton during a campaign-style swing through California was enough to save about half the threatened jobs.

A grateful Board of Supervisors backed away from the most Draconian cuts, sparing the hospital and health centers and the community clinics from shutting down. Employees originally scheduled to be laid off Oct. 1 breathed a sigh of relief when the supervisors gave them a two-week reprieve. But the grim reality was merely postponed and the inevitable came to pass Thursday when county officials announced the extent of the layoffs.

Even the huge amount of federal aid was not enough to save the entire health program. Significant cuts still will occur by the end of this month in the outpatient clinics at county hospitals and at the health centers and clinics that will remain in operation.

“You will still have people shocked by the fact that they are being laid off,” Henry said.

Before the federal bailout, nearly 5,200 health workers faced layoffs or demotions. With the new money, the latest estimates sent to the supervisors Thursday are that 3,283 employees will be laid off or demoted by the end of the month.

The 499 layoffs at Olive View and 102 at High Desert replace the pink slips handed out earlier to about 690 Olive View employees and 152 High Desert workers.

“Its lower than the first number, but I think one is too many,” said Bill Fujioka, administrator of High Desert Hospital.

Melinda Anderson, Olive View’s administrator, said many of the layoffs at her hospital would come from the emergency room and intensive care unit because those areas have a high percentage of employees with relatively low seniority.

“There is a high turnover rate in those areas, so that’s where there’s a lot of junior staff,” she said.

Because the layoffs are being performed largely on the basis of seniority, those with the shortest county work history are the most vulnerable.

On Thursday, hospital administrators said the mood at the area’s two county hospitals was tense in anticipation of the layoff notices that will be handed out this morning.

“The general mood among the staff is to just get on with it,” Anderson said.

“They are real tense, but in a way, it’s a real mixed mood because some people will receive notices rescinding their layoffs, while others will get notices,” said Fujioka, who added that 11 physicians at his hospital were among those who would be dismissed.

The supervisors decided late last month to delay the original layoffs and demotions until a plan was in place to restructure the vast system of health centers, hospitals and community clinics. The board has voted to turn over, effective Nov. 1, six of the community health clinics--in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, East Los Angeles and on the Westside--to private operators.

Local 660 has sued to stop the layoffs of workers in clinics that are scheduled for closure. The suit also alleges that the county has not pursued alternatives to the layoffs. A hearing on the suit is scheduled for this morning in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the district where Olive View and High Desert are located, called the layoffs unfortunate but necessary.

“These are necessary steps to retain the county’s fiscal responsibility,” he said, adding that “displaced employees have been given the first chance to be rehired” at county hospitals and health clinics.