100 Layoffs Planned This Month At Hanford Pink Slips Predicted To Hit Up To 550 In 1998, Down From Earlier Forecast Of 720

About 100 layoffs are expected later this month at Fluor Daniel Hanford and the number may peak at 400 by Sept. 30, officials say.

The layoffs would be spread among seven subcontractors, which employ nearly 5,500 people.

This puts the predicted fiscal 1998 layoffs for Hanford’s two biggest corporate teams - led by Fluor and Bechtel Hanford Inc. - at 530 to 550.

Previous estimates of that number had been as high as 720.

Bechtel’s predicted 130 to 150 layoffs would be spread among its three-company team of about 970.

The layoffs also will probably affect Hanford’s six spinoff “enterprise” companies, which employ about 2,000 additional people outside Fluor’s “inside-the-fence” umbrella, said Gordon Beecher, Fluor’s director of human resources.

Fluor’s layoffs are addressed in its work force restructuring plan, which the U.S. Department of Energy approved Thursday. Such a plan is required if a federal contractor expects layoffs for a year to exceed 100.

The primary reason for the layoffs is Hanford’s shrinking budget.

The DOE’s Richland office recently finished divvying up the $1.093 billion budget for fiscal 1998, which is $36 million short of what the office believes is needed to meet its Tri-Party Agreement obligations at the tank farms.

In a Thursday memo to workers, Fluor President Hank Hatch listed several factors as affecting the layoffs including:

Trimming $12 million off the Fluor team’s “indirect costs” which cover overhead, plus equipment and facilities shared by several firms. For fiscal 1998, the core Fluor team has a target of cutting indirect costs from 1997’s level of $302 million to $278 million.

The impending deactivation of B Plant, a closed chemical processing facility. The target to complete deactivation is September, which is when some workers are expected to be laid off.

Some organizational changes at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which likely will shift some people to B Plant to replace people already gone because of attrition.

Workers with less than two years on the job will get a combination of 30 days notice and severance pay, Beecher said.

More senior workers will get a standard severance package, which includes a week of pay for each year worked plus a minimum of two weeks notice. Fluor will try to give more notice if possible.