LIVERMORE UNVEILS BUYOUT PLAN FOR UP TO 600 EMPLOYEES

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is looking to cut its workforce by up to 600 employees and is kicking off a round of buyouts to address potential budgetary shortfalls in Fiscal Year 2014, laboratory Director Parney Albright said yesterday. The buyouts will be available to all career employees at the laboratory, and one week of severance pay per year of continuous service up to 26 years will be offered as an incentive to get employees to take the offer. “Although there remain a number of unknowns about how the budget request for FY14 would flow down to our Laboratory, it is clear the budget proposal will face an uphill battle in Congress this summer, with continuing debates about reducing federal spending, a possible FY14 sequester and the debt ceiling,” Albright said in a statement. “It is our hope that implementing the SSVSP [Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program] now, rather than waiting for additional details on the FY14 budget, will put the Laboratory in a better posture to address whatever budget realities we’ll face in FY14 and beyond.” Employees can begin applying for the buyouts May 8, and exits from the lab are scheduled to take place by June 13. Albright said buyout applications will be reviewed to guarantee essential skills are maintained in the lab workforce.

Lab spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said the lab is still considering a salary reduction/closure day program to deal with funding shortfalls in Fiscal Year 2013. Albright previously said the lab would wait until June to make a decision on the salary reduction/closure day program. “We are continuing to evaluate our salary reduction/closure day program, though we have taken some measures such as cutting back on procurements, travel, on-call pay and overtime,” Seaver said. Seaver noted that the Obama Administration’s $1.48 billion FY 2014 budget request for the lab is less than the $1.6 billion FY 2013 request, which was reduced to about $1.5 billion by sequestration cuts. “Though we are a long way from a final FY14 budget, even as the numbers stand now we will need to do something to address the workforces challenges that budget proposal brings,” Seaver said. “The voluntary separation was designed to do that, but is a pre-emptive measure for FY14 only. It does nothing to address the issues we face this fiscal year.”