LLNL layoffs continue
Written by Danielle MacMurchy / Tracy Press
Friday, 23 May 2008
More than 400 workers are laid off from the Lawrence Livermore lab as a budget crunch squeezes the research facility.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory handed out 440 pink slips to employees Thursday and Friday, and about 100 temporary workers will be cut next month due to a $280 million budget crunch that the nuclear weapons research lab has felt since November.
More than 100 of the laid-off employees are engineers and scientists with more than 10 years of service.
The lab had a workforce of 8,800 employees just 2½ years ago, but that has shrunk to about 6,800 through attrition, retirements and layoffs.
In January, the lab laid off 500 employees who were part of what the lab calls its "flexible force," and in March it asked for employees to "voluntarily separate" from the lab, according to lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton.
About 200 agreed to leave in exchange for severance packages.
Every cut employee will receive one week’s pay for each year he or she worked with the lab. In addition, scientists and engineers who worked 10 or more years at the lab will have an option to either telecommute or continue to work on the Livermore campus on special projects until an extended severance package is up.
"It’s a way to help them transition into what’s an unfortunate situation," Houghton said Friday.
She added that this is the last leg of layoffs to make up for the budget shortfall, which she said stems from inflation, employee health care costs, retirement costs and taxes, which the lab must now pay since transitioning from public to private management under a consortium led by Bechtel Inc.
Also, the U.S. Department of Energy OK’d about $100 million less for the lab in its 2008 operating budget than in 2007, Houghton said.
The lab will open a resource center Tuesday to help cut employees get back on their feet. The center will stay open through September to offer resume building workshops, job training and career advice.
"We’re doing everything we can to help our employees adjust to this situation and try to find a new job," Houghton said.
The lab opened in 1952 as an operation of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Friday, 23 May 2008
More than 400 workers are laid off from the Lawrence Livermore lab as a budget crunch squeezes the research facility.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory handed out 440 pink slips to employees Thursday and Friday, and about 100 temporary workers will be cut next month due to a $280 million budget crunch that the nuclear weapons research lab has felt since November.
More than 100 of the laid-off employees are engineers and scientists with more than 10 years of service.
The lab had a workforce of 8,800 employees just 2½ years ago, but that has shrunk to about 6,800 through attrition, retirements and layoffs.
In January, the lab laid off 500 employees who were part of what the lab calls its "flexible force," and in March it asked for employees to "voluntarily separate" from the lab, according to lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton.
About 200 agreed to leave in exchange for severance packages.
Every cut employee will receive one week’s pay for each year he or she worked with the lab. In addition, scientists and engineers who worked 10 or more years at the lab will have an option to either telecommute or continue to work on the Livermore campus on special projects until an extended severance package is up.
"It’s a way to help them transition into what’s an unfortunate situation," Houghton said Friday.
She added that this is the last leg of layoffs to make up for the budget shortfall, which she said stems from inflation, employee health care costs, retirement costs and taxes, which the lab must now pay since transitioning from public to private management under a consortium led by Bechtel Inc.
Also, the U.S. Department of Energy OK’d about $100 million less for the lab in its 2008 operating budget than in 2007, Houghton said.
The lab will open a resource center Tuesday to help cut employees get back on their feet. The center will stay open through September to offer resume building workshops, job training and career advice.
"We’re doing everything we can to help our employees adjust to this situation and try to find a new job," Houghton said.
The lab opened in 1952 as an operation of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Labels: California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, layoffs
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