Statement on Reductions in Force at Brookhaven Lab

April 1, 2005

Over the past several years, Brookhaven National Laboratory has generally seen flat or slightly declining budgets. When an average three-percent increase per year in inflationary costs and double-digit annual medical insurance increases are factored in, this funding profile has led to a slow but steady decline in the total number of Laboratory staff, from 2,912 in 2000 to the current level of 2,742. The decline has accelerated, and the Laboratory expects to lose a total of 95 staff members through both voluntary and involuntary reductions in force this fiscal year (October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005). Approximately 25 of those layoffs are scheduled for this week.

The workforce reduction will be spread across the Laboratory, affecting both bargaining and non-bargaining unit employees. Several projects had been scheduled to end in fiscal year 2005, and the layoffs associated with those end-dates were expected. These projects include BNL production of magnets for the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; BNL support for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory; and large portions of the Lab's environmental cleanup program.

Other, general staff reductions will occur in operational and administrative support positions. The Laboratory will first ask for voluntary reductions, and it is expected that greater than 50 percent of the total required reduction will be accomplished in this manner. The remainder will be accomplished through involuntary separations. Both groups will receive severance benefits as required by contract, as well as extended medical benefits coverage. BNL's Human Resources Department can provide guidance regarding available resources for job seekers.

The Laboratory and Department of Energy (DOE) are now developing a workforce restructuring plan to ensure that those employees with essential knowledge and skills needed to continue the mission of the Laboratory's programs are retained, and that impacts on affected employees are minimized. When complete, this plan will be made available to employees, labor union representatives, subcontractors, and the general public for review and comment. Once the public's comments on the plan have been received and reviewed, DOE will write a responsiveness summary. This summary documents public comments on the plan, contains DOE's responses to those comments, and changes made to the plan as a result.

2005-10295  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom