Kaiser Permanente announced several dozen layoffs in two San Francisco Bay Area cities and four Southern California cities, according to documents filed with the state last week.
Kaiser, which is embroiled in labor negotiations with workers following a three-day strike, said they would permanently lay off 49 employees at multiple addresses in WARN notices received Oct. 3.
Of those, it will lay off 21 employees at an address in the Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton, as well as seven employees at three addresses in Oakland's downtown. The layoffs at the healthcare provider will take effect on Nov. 10, according to the notices dated Sept. 12.
In Southern California, it will lay off 18 employees at four separate Pasadena addresses, as well as lone employees at addresses in San Diego, Burbank and Rancho Cucamonga.
In a statement Tuesday morning to The Standard, Kaiser said it moved service by a human-resources employee services team to an outside firm, and would offer affected workers the chance to apply for other internal roles, or offer a comprehensive separation benefits package with services and severance.
It also said the layoffs would not affect patience service and "no union-represented employees were affected by this change."
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees returned to work over the weekend after what’s being called the biggest health care strike in the nation’s history, with possibly another work stoppage to come.
The walkout last Wednesday through Saturday included 60,000 Kaiser employees in California—20,000 of them in the Bay Area—and delayed appointments and shuttered clinics.
Coming just days after the last contract expired, the strike culminated about six months of negotiations and grapples with many of the same issues that fueled other walkouts in the industry earlier this year: starting salaries, raises, benefits, hiring practices and workforce development.
Eight labor groups under the aegis of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions say the health care giant reported more than $24 billion in profits over the last five years, paid its CEO more than $16 million in 2021 and gave 49 other executives more than $1 million-a-year salaries.
Kaiser calls many of the coalition’s claims misleading, saying it offered across-the-board wage hikes and a company-wide minimum hourly pay of $21—$5 less than the union's desired $26. Kaiser officials also say they spent millions to train staff, accelerate hiring and fund pay bumps of 10% and 14% over four years.