By Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 15, 1997

Sixty UMC employees laid off in cost-cutting move

The hospital has been looking for ways to reduce costs since 1993, when it laid off several top administrators and managers. The latest cuts involve almost every position, from secretaries to medical technicians, spokeswoman Nancy Guthrie said.

Guthrie said she expects most of those laid off to participate in UMC's Staff and Community Investment Program, which began in June.

The program allows laid-off employees to work for up to a year at a local organization that benefits the community while UMC continues to provide full pay and benefits, Guthrie said. While they can split up their time between more than one organization, participants must work 40 hours a week.

"The program is designed to give laid-off employees another option, besides the regular severance package," she said.

Of course, she said, employees can still choose the severance package, which gives them one week's pay for each year of employment, with a minimum of eight weeks.

Romana Anderson, who is participating in the program after being laid off in December, works at Casa de Los Ninos, a community outreach program, as well as at the Urgent Care center at UMC. At Casa de Los Ninos, Anderson works nights at the center's medical office, taking care of the sick children.

Anderson said she chose to participate in the program because she will receive her nursing degree in May and become a registered nurse, and she hopes to attain a nursing position at UMC. She had worked at the hospital for five years.

"It's a great program, it really is, and I am enjoying the work a lot. It's just too bad that people have to get laid off to participate in the program," she said.

Registered nursing positions that provide direct patient care were not affected by the lay-offs, according to a statement from the medical center.

-Michelle J. Jones