Retirement News : Seniors : RETIREMENTS UP SHARPLY AT LOS ALAMOS

RETIREMENTS UP SHARPLY AT LOS ALAMOS

Date Added: 30-04-2005

Los Alamos National Laboratory is projecting a 50 percent increase in retirements this year as a higher than usual number of scientists and technicians close to retirement age opt for the security of their current pension plan rather than to wait and learn what the next lab manager has to offer.
    As of Monday, nearly 2 percent of the laboratory work force, or about 146 workers, had completed its retirement paperwork. That figure is already more than half of the 251 workers who retired during all of last year.
    LANL spokesman James Rickman said it is difficult to attribute any causes to the projected increase, but he did say feedback from workers preparing to retire suggests that their decision is at least partly in response to the uncertainty posed by LANL's pending contract competition.
    Current LANL projections based on retirements thus far estimate that about 380 employees, or 4.6 percent of the 8,225-employee work force, will file for retirement by year's end, Rickman said.
    He said LANL will have a more accurate projection by June, when the largest number of retirements normally occurs due to an annual cost-of-living adjustment that becomes effective that month.
    For the past two years, the average annual work force retirement rate has been 3 percent, Rickman said.
    After more than 60 years as LANL's manager, the University of California must now decide if it will compete to regain the weapons lab's contract. Then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced in April 2003 his decision to put the LANL contract out for bid after a series of financial and security management problems.
    The university's contract expires at the end of September, but so far, its Board of Regents hasn't made a decision about whether to compete for the contract, though spokesman Chris Harrington said the school is preparing as if it will.
    He said a decision may come as early as the school's next regents meeting in May.
    In March, Sens. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., expressed their strong concerns that uncertainty from the competition process could provoke a "mass exodus" of LANL's most senior scientists who chose retirement to maintain their university benefits.
    LANL employees are eligible for retirement beginning at age 50. Rickman said the average age of the entire work force is slightly more than 46 years old. Of the 3,361 LANL scientists, about 1,350, or 39 percent, are 50 years old or older, he said. Of the lab's technicians, about 630, or 34 percent, are 50 years old or older.

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