557 LANL EMPLOYEES ACCEPT BUYOUTS

By ExchangeMonitor

Los Alamos National Laboratory said yesterday that 557 employees had accepted buyouts and would leave the lab early next month, though it’s unclear whether enough employees accepted buyouts to stave off forced layoffs. With the lab facing budget shortfalls in Fiscal Year 2012 and FY2013, officials had hoped between 400 and 800 of its 7,600 workers would accept a buyout offer of up to 39 weeks of severance pay. In a message to employees, Lab Director Charlie McMillan said that 612 employees had initially applied for the Voluntary Separation Program, but 55 rescinded their applications, leaving 557 workers in a variety of fields that will leave the lab April 5. “The loss of hundreds employees will be painful, but the program did accomplish what it set out to do,” McMillan said. “This VSP, and other actions that started late last year, are necessary to preserve our capabilities during uncertain economic times.”

The lab said in a statement that senior officials will “assess what additional actions are needed,” and suggested that its contractor and term employee ranks could be trimmed before the end of the fiscal year. Of the employees leaving, 258 are from fields such as finance, information technology and records management, 152 are from research and development fields, 74 are managers, 59 are technicians, and 14 are support employees, the lab said. Thirty-six percent of the employees come from science, technology and engineering areas, 25 percent are from operations and business, 16 percent are from the lab’s weapons program, 15 percent are from global security, and 4 percent each are from capital projects management and departments reporting to the Office of the Director. McMillan will address employees Thursday in an all-hands meeting to provide further details of the lab’s workforce plans. “For employees who remain here at the Lab: while change is sometimes difficult and departures of colleagues will leave gaps that force all of us to re-prioritize and reallocate work, I know you are ready to lean forward and to continue the tradition of excellence established by our predecessors at Los Alamos,” he said.

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