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Lab Offers Buyouts To Hundreds

 

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) — Workers at the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory are being offered severance packages of up to 39 weeks' pay if they leave their jobs.

The lab is trying to cut between 400 and 800 workers from its current workforce of 7,600 to deal with budget cuts.

The Los Alamos Monitor reports (http://bit.ly/y1naxq ) that lab director Charlie McMillan met with employees on Thursday to detail the terms being offered to those who voluntarily leave their jobs. Workers get payments based on years of service and receive medical insurance at employee contribution rates for a year. They'll have to pay more for up to an additional two years of coverage.

Workers can sign up until March 14 and will be told by the end of the month if their application for the buyout has been accepted. Those taking the deal will be off the payroll by April 5.

McMillan says the lab's $2.2 billion budget is down $300 million this year and future budgets are expected to be flat.

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Information from: Los Alamos Monitor, http://www.lamonitor.com

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.