Y-12 squeezes benefits to save money

Anonymously contributed:

From Frank Munger's Column at the Knoxville News-Sentinel on Y-12:


Y-12 squeezes benefits to save money

B&W Y-12 so far as been able to avoid layoffs at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant or having to reduce payrolls through voluntary plans, but the federal contractor has taken a number of measures to trim costs and, like its counterpart (UT-Battelle) did recently at ORNL, B&W has changed some employee benefits to ease budget pressures.

Y-12 employees were notified of the changes last week.

In a statement, Y-12 General Manager Darrel Kohlhorst said, "In these uncertain budget times, we're continuously examining how we manage our business. We will continue to offer excellent benefits to employees, but managing benefits and absences differently will allow us to save money and save jobs."
According to B&W Y-12 spokesman David Keim, salaried employees hired after the first of the year will now be eligible for "an enhanced defined contribution plan" -- apparently a 401(k) plan -- rather than the existing defined pension plan.

Keim said company would make contributions to the new employees' plan based on years of service: 2 percent of pay for 0-5 years, 4 percent of pay for 5-10 years, and 6 percent of pay after 10 years. Also, he said, new employees will receive company contributions even if they do not contribute to the plan themselves.

Current employees at Y-12 are not affected by the pension changes.

Meanwhile, there's are changes to "absence policies" for all salaried employees. Here are the changes as described by B&W:

-- Beginning in 2012, absences due to an employee's personal illness now will be paid out of the 40 hours of personal leave that each employee receives, rather than through short-term disability.

-- Employees will only be able to bank up to 160 hours of vacation (down from up to 240 hours), and they'll no longer have the option of deferring vacation from one year to the next.

-- After 13 weeks of short-term disability absences, the salary continuation rate will drop from 100 percent to 80 percent, instead of the current 26 weeks.

Keim, via email, described another change taking place. "Under our current short-term disability plan, periods of disability are treated as separate periods if they are: (1) due to unrelated causes and are separated by a return to active work of at least eight consecutive hours of work; or (2) due to related causes and are separated by a return to active work of at least 520 hours of work or three calendar months, whichever is longer. Under the new guidelines, an employee will have six months of short-term disability for all disabilities combined. In order to reestablish six months of short-term disability, an employee must return to work for at least 2,080 hours."