Bizjournals.com, NC - The Department of Energy approved a plan that will let Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory lay off up to 535 workers.
Under the plan, the lab will prepare what it calls “an involuntary separation program” for the workers in an attempt to save money. Since new managers -- led by the University of California and San Francisco’s Bechtel Corp. -- took charge at the lab in October, federal funding has fallen and costs have risen. Fees for managing the lab rose from $8 million a year to $46 million a year, and the lab lost its tax protections as a nonprofit when for-profit corporations joined the management team.
In November, the lab said it would cut 500 workers on flexible contracts. It then asked for volunteers among its “career-indefinite” class workers and got 215 of them to leave their jobs. Adding normal attrition to those numbers means about 900 workers have left the lab.
These 535 people getting layoff notices will also be those on “career-indefinite” status, meaning they have permanent career jobs at the lab, not temporary contracts.
George Miller is head of Livermore lab, which was started in 1952 to do Cold War atomic weapons research.
