Washington Closure Hanford has notified Washington state that it will lay off its last 435 employees starting July 1. The notification was required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act as Washington Closure nears the end of its contract in September. Washington Closure has been cleaning up the Hanford River Corridor under a closure contract, which means most work should be completed and the contract will not be recompeted. Washington Closure created what it called “The People Plan” in 2011 to guide staffing levels and layoffs when more than half of its contracted work had been completed. In October 2011 managers met with each employee to discuss individuals’ anticipated last date of employment in the coming years. Washington Closure’s contract was subsequently extended from its original 10 years for an additional year through September 2016.
Washington Closure had about 925 regular employees – or about 1,200 if staff augmentation and corporate employees are included in the total – when it started to ramp down employment. To date 387 nonunion employees have exited the company. Of those, about 300 wanted to find another job; Washington Closure helped place 95 percent of them. Many found work at other Hanford contractors or in other locations working for Washington Closure parent companies AECOM, CH2M, and Bechtel. The layoffs also affected Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council workers, who were eligible to claim the jobs of union workers with less seniority at other Hanford contractors.
Washington Closure said that about 200 of its remaining 435 employees are expected to move to other Hanford contractors. The majority will transfer to CH2M Plateau Remediation Co., which will take over Washington Closure projects including management of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility and remediation of the 618-10 Burial Ground and the 324 Building. The remaining employees will include about 140 nonunion workers who could continue to work through the end of September, with some of them expected to work longer to close out the contract.
