Hanford Workers Asked To Foot Bill Time Off Without Pay Sought To Stem Financial Woes

Amid signs of growing financial strains at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, contractors are considering asking their employees to voluntarily take time off without pay in an effort to save money and avoid possible layoffs, a spokeswoman for Fluor Daniel Hanford said Wednesday.

Fears that the contractors were considering forced furloughs during August had spread throughout the reservation this week, but Penny Phelps, a Fluor spokeswoman, denied there was every such a plan.

But Phelps said Lockheed Martin Hanford asked about 700 employees on Wednesday if they wanted to take time off and others were considering doing the same.

“The rest are looking at voluntary furloughs as an option,” Phelps said. “But they haven’t finalized any options.”

Phelps said the companies were searching for ways to trim their costs as the budget crunch during the current fiscal year has worsened.

“We are looking at everything we can do to reduce costs,” she said. “The problem has been caused by a number of factors. It is partly a result of being underbudgeted and partly some high costs.”

Phelps said she doesn’t know exactly how much has to be saved, but indicated Fluor had submitted a plan to lowers its costs to the Department of Energy.

“I’m not able to find an exact budget figure,” she said.

Congressional aides, however, suggested the budget problems were widespread throughout the various cleanup programs at Hanford, with the tank farm program, managed by Lockheed Martin, among those in the worst shape.

The aides said the problems were caused by three major factors:

The department had failed to budget enough money to cover all the cleanup costs.

The transition costs when Fluor took over from Westinghouse Hanford were much higher than expected.

Fluor, in general, has had high overhead costs as it tries to reorganize management at the reservation.

“This has become real serious,” said one congressional aide.

Another said: “Some programs have cost overruns, some weren’t budgeted enough. It varies program to program. But its hard to blame Fluor. This is their first year on the job.”

Phelps said Fluor and the other contractors were trying to avoid additional layoffs at the reservation. So far this year, 150 people have been laid off with total layoffs capped at no more than 500.

“We are trying to offer options other than involuntary layoffs,” she said. “One way to do this would be voluntary furloughs.”

Phelps said Lockheed Martin was offering its voluntary furloughs as part of an existing personnel policy.

At this point, the department has taken a low profile.

“We don’t have much to comment on,” said Anne Elliott, a DOE spokesman in Washington, D.C.

Republican Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings, whose district includes Hanford, said he was relieved there weren’t going to be forced furloughs.

“I’m pleased the rumors about mandatory furloughs turned out to be false,” Hastings said.