Blue Shield, Kaiser announce dozens of layoffs statewide

(KRON) — Two East Bay-based health care giants will be laying off dozens of employees across the state, according to filings with the Employment Development Department. Blue Shield of California will be laying off 113 workers statewide, according to a WARN notice.

Notice of the Blue Shield layoffs was given on Monday and Tuesday with the job cuts set to take effect on May 1. In the Bay Area, 24 employees at Blue Shield’s headquarters on 12th Street in Oakland will be impacted.

Other counties across the state that will be impacted by the layoffs include:

• El Dorado County: 35 employees
• Los Angeles County: 26 employees
• Sacramento County: 13 employees
• San Diego County: 5 employees
• San Joaquin County: 7 employees
• Shasta County: 3 employees

The layoffs at Blue Shield come on the heels of the announcement of a major data breach that resulted in millions of members having their private health information leaked to Google and used to target them with online ads.

Kaiser Foundation Hospitals also announced layoffs this week. According to EDD filings, the health care provider will be cutting 40 jobs across the state. Fourteen of those jobs will be at Kaiser’s Oakland headquarters at 1 Kaiser Plaza. Two other Bay Area employees — one at Kaiser’s Franklin Street facility in Oakland, and another in Pleasanton, will also be impacted.

Another two workers at Kaiser’s Sereno Drive location in Vallejo will also lose their jobs. The other 23 Kaiser layoffs will impact workers across Los Angeles County.

Kaiser filed notice for the layoffs on Monday, and they were effective immediately, according to the EDD filing.