Note: This story was last updated at 10:50 a.m. Aug. 9.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory will reduce its workforce by up to 350 positions by the end of the calendar year, ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said in a Tuesday morning email to employees.
The workforce restructuring plan has been proposed by UT-Battelle and approved by the U.S. Department of Energy, Zacharia said. ORNL is DOE’s largest multiprogram science and energy laboratory.
“From time to time, sustaining our work effectively and efficiently requires the most difficult of decisions, which is to reduce our staff in certain areas of the lab,” Zacharia said. “To allow us to provide for our research missions and to allocate resources most productively, the Department of Energy has approved a Workforce Restructuring Plan proposed by UT-Battelle that will reduce ORNL’s workforce by up to 350 positions by the end of the calendar year.”
Zacharia said the reductions will be made primarily among staff who charge to “indirect accounts,” along with some research staff affected by fiscal year 2017 funding who could not be placed elsewhere in the lab.
“By reducing these positions, ORNL will be able to maintain competitive chargeout rates while freeing resources for discretionary investments that will modernize lab infrastructure and maintain core research capabilities in the mission areas assigned to ORNL,” Zacharia said.
The workforce reductions will start first with a Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program, or VSP, Zacharia said.
“We are hopeful that the VSP will provide for all necessary staff reductions,†he said. “If more are needed, an Involuntary Separation Plan (ISP) will be implemented.â€
There has been concern among some ORNL employees of potential cuts or layoffs since the Trump administration proposed about $900 million in reductions for DOE’s Office of Science and other program funding decreases starting in the next fiscal year, which begins October 1. ORNL is an Office of Science Lab. President Donald Trump’s budget request would reduce ORNL funding by $185 million. In June, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein said the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2018 could lead to a 33 percent workforce reduction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and about 1,600 of the lab’s roughly 4,800 employees could be laid off.
But the workforce reductions announced to ORNL staff on Tuesday are not about the budget proposed for the next fiscal year, ORNL spokesperson Morgan McCorkle said.
“It’s not about the fiscal year 2018 budget,” McCorkle said. “The goal is to keep our operating costs as low as reasonably achievable while still fulfilling the missions assigned to the lab by DOE. It’s about maintaining a competitive cost of doing business.”
It’s not clear how the workforce reductions announced Tuesday, possibly all through voluntary separations, will affect ORNL’s budget in fiscal year 2018, which starts in less than two months, or if they would help to prevent any future employment cuts, such as the potential reductions reported by Feinstein. Congress and the president haven’t agreed to any final budget numbers yet, and some officials think a continuing resolution, which would maintain current spending levels, is likely, at least temporarily.
Some of the Trump administration’s largest proposed cuts for the next fiscal year, including to the DOE Office of Science, have been rejected by Congress, at least so far. The House held funding flat for the Office of Science, while the Senate Appropriations Committee actually recommended an increase.
Feinstein, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, had said during a budget hearing in June that managers of some DOE labs were preparing for potential layoffs and developing workforce restructuring plans, although she didn’t say which ones. Oak Ridge National Laboratory declined to comment at the time.
It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday afternoon if any of the other DOE labs, particularly the non-weapons labs, had workforce restructuring plans that had been approved and announced.
Zacharia said the Voluntary Separation Program at ORNL will initially open on Monday, August 14. Employees can apply for the VSP from August 14 to September 27.
“Management reserves the right to deny any application, and employees will be notified whether their application has been accepted,” Zacharia said. “Accepted employees will leave the payroll by December 31.”
Meetings to explain details and eligibility for the VSP will begin this week.
See new story with more information from Wednesday here.
Here’s the Tuesday morning email from Zacharia:
In recent years, the leadership of Oak Ridge National Laboratory has worked to contain the cost of doing business in order to be a good steward of taxpayer funding, to maximize resources available for strategic investment, and to keep Lab costs competitive with our peers.
We’ve controlled chargeout rates, consolidated operations, and contained health-care costs. We’ve also increased investment in lab-directed research and development, expanded key programs, and continued modernizing the campus.
Thank you for your focus amid these changes. Your disciplined inquiry into difficult challenges, creative collaborations, and leadership in your fields will ensure ORNL’s position as one of the world’s premier research institutions. My goal is to support these efforts — to minimize distractions, effectively allocate resources, and reward excellence.
From time to time, sustaining our work effectively and efficiently requires the most difficult of decisions, which is to reduce our staff in certain areas of the Lab. To allow us to provide for our research missions and to allocate resources most productively, the Department of Energy has approved a Workforce Restructuring Plan proposed by UT-Battelle that will reduce ORNL’s workforce by up to 350 positions by the end of the calendar year.
These reductions will be made primarily among staff who charge to indirect accounts, along with some research staff affected by FY17 funding who could not be placed elsewhere in the Lab. By reducing these positions, ORNL will be able to maintain competitive chargeout rates while freeing resources for discretionary investments that will modernize Lab infrastructure and maintain core research capabilities in the mission areas assigned to ORNL.
Initially, a Self-Select Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) will open on Monday, August 14. Employees can apply for the VSP from August 14 to September 27. Management reserves the right to deny any application, and employees will be notified whether their application has been accepted. Accepted employees will leave the payroll by December 31.
Meetings to explain details and eligibility for the VSP will begin this week.
The most effective way to navigate uncertain times is by demonstrating leadership — by being the best at what we do. Excellence and adaptability have been hallmarks of ORNL throughout its history, and the Department of Energy has entrusted us with uniquely powerful scientific tools that enable exceptional capabilities. Thank you for your continued commitment to ORNL’s missions in energy, scientific discovery, national security, and industrial competitiveness.
Thomas Zacharia
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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