Livermore lab offers buyouts to up to 750
By Betsy Mason, MediaNews
Article Launched: 02/04/2008 06:29:25 PM PST
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced Monday it will offer voluntary separation packages to as many as 750 employees, including 326 scientists and engineers.
The buyouts will come from the core, permanent workforce and will be given on a first-come, first- served basis.
``We think this is the next step to retool the workforce to reflect the budget changes that are happening at the federal level,'' said lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton.
The Department of Energy's budget request for 2009, announced Monday, is up $1 billion to $25 billion, but Livermore's slice of the pie is shrinking by $62 million to $1.1 billion. It is down from nearly $1.3 billion in 2007. The bulk of the cuts will come from nuclear weapons work.
It is unclear if involuntary layoffs will be needed even if 750 employees take the packages. ``We have to decide what happens after that,'' Houghton said. ``We don't know if we'll need an involuntary separation. I can't rule it out.''
About 500 temporary and supplemental workers had already left in a round of layoffs in January, slimming the total workforce to 7,300.
Lab director George Miller told employees at an all-hands meeting in January that as the next step he had requested a voluntary separation program. The National Nuclear Security Administration approved the plan on Friday.
The packages include a week of severance pay for every year of employment at the lab up to 26 weeks, a full year of medical benefits, and 50 percent of continuing insurance premiums for the second year.
Employees can apply online for the separation program for a two-week period beginning Feb. 12. They will be notified if their application was accepted or not on March 6, and those who are will leave the lab on March 14.
Workers who have been at the lab less than a year are not eligible, and those with skills the lab sees as critical will also be excluded.
Workers at the National Ignition Facility are not eligible, despite a budget that will be $20 million smaller in 2009 as the facility nears completion. ``It's critically important that NIF stays on track,'' Houghton said.
There are also caps on how many workers in different categories can take the packages.
The lab will accept applications from 326 scientists and engineers, 145 technicians, 101 professional administrative workers such as human resources and public information employees, 79 general administrative workers, 68 supervisors and executives, 22 laborers and 9 operators. Each group or department within the lab has a cap on how many employees of each type get the buyout.
In all, 60 percent of the permanent workforce is eligible to apply for the separation package.
``The outcome at this point depends entirely on how many people take it,'' said Jim Wolford, a computer scientist and member of the Society of Professionals, Scientist and Engineers labor union. Last month, Los Alamos National Laboratory announced 430 of its more than 10,000 employees had signed up for a voluntary separation package that had a more generous severance allowance than Livermore's program.
Los Alamos workers received one week per year of employment for the first 6 years, and two weeks for every additional year up to a total of 39 weeks.
Another 140 jobs were lost at Los Alamos through attrition, and last month the lab's director said that further layoffs would not be necessary.
Betsy Mason covers science and the national laboratories.
Reach her at 925-952-5026 or bmason@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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And don't forget the budget will be less next year than it was this year so we'll all get to go through this saga again come FY-09and FY-10. Maybe after 2 to 2.5 years or so they'll finally have the crew down to where the ratio of people to workload has normalized.
The problem is, they didn't save a dime and the man-power cost will still show on the Lab Pricer as being $400K to $600K per person as ULM stands around picking their noses and scratching their butts wondering how could they have resolved this issue. Oh I know. We need to hire more mangers and offer them larger salaries. Darn. I knew we blew it. Lets try this over again until we get it right, should we.
And the good new is as reported on a post on the LANL blog, "LANL budget is going to be down next year too", so what LANL does LLNL does. Translation. All we ask is 1,200 more people to depart next FY and all will be well. I promise. Can't wait to ride the tide again.
Report shows recession's effect on income and jobs
Few people have assets to outlast a mild slowdown
By RUTH MANTELL
McCLATCHY TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS
last updated: February 05, 2008 02:43:52 AM
WASHINGTON -- Up to 5.8 million more workers in the United States could join the ranks of the unemployed by 2011 if the economy were to fall into a severe recession, according to a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The report comes on the heels of the government's news on Friday that U.S. employers are cutting back on hiring. January marks the first monthly contraction in nonfarm payrolls in four years, and it may be the evidence that the economy has entered a recession.
Lawmakers are working on a stimulus plan that they hope will boost the economy and stave off recession. Technically, a recession occurs if the economy contracts for two consecutive quarters. The U.S. economy grew at a weak 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter, according to preliminary data.
In the case of a mild to moderate recession, spanning six to nine months, the research center projects 3.2 million more jobless by 2010. At the end of last year, about 7 million were jobless.
The research center, which applied trends from recent recessions to create a forecast for a 2008 recession, argued that the labor market would still be in bad shape even after a formal recession ends.
"The financial markets are basically sending an enormous storm over the economy," said John Schmitt, senior economist with the center and co-author of the report. "Even when the sun comes out, there will still be the devastation left behind. The hiring will resume at a rate slower than before, and with a big backlog of workers that are unemployed."
In a severe recession, which would last about two years, a typical family's inflation-adjusted income would fall almost $3,750 per year by 2011, according to the report, and the number of Americans living in poverty would grow by 10.4 million. In a mild to moderate recession, a family's income could fall $2,000 per year by 2010, and 4.7 million more people would be living in poverty, according to the report.
There's evidence that America's middle-class is already at risk. New research from think- tank Demos and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University found that only 13 percent of middle-class families would have enough assets to cover most of their essential living expenses for nine months if they lost their income source.
The report found that at least 4 million more people would be without health insurance coverage in a mild to moderate recession. Some workers who lose their job may still be covered by a spouse's plan.
Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation in New York that supports independent research on health care issues, said recessions focus consumers more on health care.
"It raises your anxiety," she said.
She added that states experience a "double whammy" during recessions when it comes to health care. They collect less tax revenue as consumers cut spending and home values decline, even as the ranks of those relying on government support swells. A recession could harm nonprofit service providers.
"Their bad debts go up," Davis said. "More people are uninsured, more people are broke and they are just not able to pay their bills. A lot of (providers), particularly in low-income communities, operate pretty close to the edge. If they had to cut back on services, it would mean a lot more people going without care."
The true shortfall for LLNL is worse that it first appears. In addition to the $62 million reduction, the budget won't keep up with inflation which is running around 4%. This equals about $44 million giving the $1.1 B budget.
Thus, LLNS is looking at an effective reduction of about $100 million for FY09. That's almost a 10% loss. Expect to see additional layoffs in FY09, regardless of the VSSOP numbers.
Also, note that programs will be taxed to pay of the severance of all of those who leave. Thus, less programmatic money will remain to fund those who are left resulting in even more layoffs.
Isn't this new NNSA "for-profit" corporate world just great?
It is amazing to read every ones comments on the propose vssop and layoffs as if they are effected by budget problems in washington, this layoff is about supporting contract 44 wich in turn supports complex transformation; I wish some of you would use your brains and go to the llnl home page; right top croner and click on contract 44 read through it and then go to the NNSA home page and click on complextransformation read through it; you will then find that NNSA plans to cut 20% of the work force at llnl and close 30% of the buildings that support weapons work; another report you brains need to read is the chiles report; go to llnl home page search and type in chiles report.
It looks like what to be said about the VSSOP has been said. All that left now is for 7,300 people to be told about the blog, asking them to vote. When I see 7,300 votes I'll start to believe there's some hope for a union at LLNL or maybe even some sharing of information. Until then it's business as usual where we're on standby for the IVSSOP. The we go to phase two for FY-09 and do this all over again next year. The question is, will you survive the adventure.
This blog, like most of the posters are useless and provided useless information. I get more useful information (for LLNL) from the LANL blog . . . besides, I expect this not to be posted like the other posts I've written that have not been posted as well - DEMOCRATS!
Hey 8:32! Please feel free to continue getting info on LLNL from the LANL BLOG and feel free not to come back here. It is your right!
From 2/7 832pm
At least I'm honest . . . I thought all thr "fruits and nuts" from California were all about free speech. It obvious that this blog is funded (a lab term) by a bunch of lawyers waiting to pounce on LLNS and DOE - not such a bad thing. But, at least print what the people of LLNL are saying. So what if they (we) say a bad word.
Jeeze, we're all getting rotated with a screw driver (see, I said a bad word without saying it) and yes, the LANL blog does provide uncensored information - good or bad. So, get rid of the verification and let the folks reading and posting on this blog have a bit of free speech.
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