Yuma Regional Medical Center to Cut Jobs

Yuma Regional Medical Center is a story that you may not have heard of in the past. After all unless you have had a reason to be there why would you? Before we can talk about the layoffs going there lets begin by learning a little bit more about the facility. Here is a look at how they have chosen to describe themselves, “Yuma Regional Medical Center is a 369-bed, not-for-profit hospital dedicated to providing outstanding medical care to the residents of Yuma and the surrounding communities in southwestern Arizona. The YRMC team includes over 2,000 employees, 300 doctors and hundreds of volunteers who work closely together to create a welcoming, caring, and compassionate environment for patients and their families.”

It looks like the company is cutting back on 135 jobs when all is said and done. In addition the company is also making back cuts to the workers who are staying in their jobs. The company is getting ready to also freeze the pension funds of  many of the workers who remain.

The cuts that the company is making, of that level, are more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

Interestingly enough the company decided, in one of its most recent releases, to highlight a recent charitable effort instead of the issues with its work force, “Over 4,000 students in 54 Yuma County schools and ten local organizations received free backpacks and school supplies last week under the Drive for School Supplies program. The 14th Annual Drive for School Supplies furnished students with the things they need to start the new school year including backpacks, crayons, pens, pencils, rulers, glue, paper, folders, scissors, markers, pencil sharpeners and dictionaries. This year’s figure brings the total to over 25,000 filled backpacks since the program’s inception in 1999.”

As you may have imagined this is not the only facility that is making cuts in the current economy. Here is a look at some recent cuts to the SUNY medical system, “Sadly the facility is getting ready to get rid of 1,000 or so workers in order to put its budget to a more stable place. This will be enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines…The cuts are, for now, not going into action totally. While some workers have already been given their walking papers the rest of the workers are not being notified as of yet. The company may adjust the number of job cuts up or down, depending on how much funding they get from the city and the state for the coming fiscal year. Interestingly enough the company did just receive a significant grant, but that money cannot be used to keep workers in their jobs.”