Slashed Hours Affected Benefits For Laid Off Employees

Over 1,000 hourly workers at Cessna's Advanced Engineering Facility in Wichita, KS will be back on a full work schedule next week, after having their hours cut as the planemaker continues to grapple with the effects of a slumping economy.

The Wichita Eagle reports the shortened three-day schedule affected nearly all the roughly 1,400 hourly workers at the Pawnee Street facility... and represented a double-edged sword for some workers who also received 60-day layoff notices earlier this year.

While the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employees to continue to be paid for the work they perform on the job for 60 days after receiving layoff notices, it doesn't say they must be paid their normal wages if the company cuts their hours.

Hundreds of workers at the Pawnee plant received WARN notices, then had their hours cut... which kept them from applying for Shared Work program assistance from the state, to recoup a portion of their lost wages stemming from the shorter week. Workers whose hours were cut but who didn't receive layoff notices were able to apply for Shared Work benefits.

KAKE-10 reported last week several workers complained about the Catch-22 situation; Cessna said at the time it was working with the Kansas labor department to arrive at some kind of solution.

By returning to a full workweek, the Pawnee employees will once again collect their normal paychecks... though for many, it will only be until the 60-day WARN period has expired. After that, they'll be out of a job with Cessna.

Furthermore, about 200 people whose hours were cut won't be returning at all... though they will continue to be paid their regular full-week wages for the balance of the 60-day WARN period, according to Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver.

Steve Rooney, president of District 70 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said roughly 500 Pawnee workers returned to their full schedule this week. The rest will be back to their regular hours next week.

In all, some 4,600 workers at Cessna facilities in Wichita and Independence, KS, and Bend, OR will be out of work by the end of this month.

FMI: www.cessna.com, www.goiam.org