(part of news article; see below)
For Fluke Networks, an Everett-based maker of testing equipment, furloughs are just the latest in a series of ongoing cost-cutting maneuvers, said one longtime employee who asked not to be identified.
The business, one of several Fluke companies owned by Washington, D.C.-based Danaher Corp., in November laid off 10 percent of its U.S. work force, or 50 people. The next month, it laid off at least 10 more in Everett.
In September, it required workers to use before Jan. 1 any vacation time they had accrued -- and declared there would be no pay increases in 2008 or 2009.
Finally, about a week before Christmas, all Fluke Networks workers were told they must take the six workdays between Jan. 2 and Jan. 9 as unpaid vacation days.
"They said this will help them meet the numbers early, rather than being reactive later in the year," the employee said. "That makes sense to me and in general to my co-workers, too. Everyone I know has been pretty understanding."
Not that being idled without a paycheck is a pleasure.
"It's a hard time, because all the Christmas bills are hitting," she said.
She said sister company Fluke Corp. has imposed a mandatory three- or four-day break recently and that Fluke Biomedical, another Danaher subsidiary, required workers to take off between two and three weeks.
But, like several workers contacted at Seattle companies, she said the breaks are far preferable to layoffs.
"Everyone is well aware that after those two layoffs, well, this sucks, but at least we still have a job," she said. "And so far, they are still matching our 401(k)s."
Fluke spokesman Larry Wilson declined to comment for this story.
ACTION: Please forward to you teams, to find out in other regions (EMEA, ASIA and others) how FLUKE is behaving differently today
Regards,
Edwin Luijks
EMEA Competitive Intelligence
Note: this message is also sent Bcc to EFM contacts who could be interested in Fluke/Danaher.
Last updated January 13, 2009 9:43 p.m. PT
The Money Squeeze: Employees get a break -- but they don't get paid
Furloughs help companies cut costs, avoid layoffs
By DAN RICHMAN
P-I REPORTER
Who doesn't love a vacation?
Answer: Most workers, when the break is mandatory and unpaid -- though they concur such breaks are far better than being laid off.
Involuntary, unpaid furloughs, some stretching for weeks, are becoming a favorite means of cutting corporate costs in this tough economic climate, in Seattle and elsewhere.
"They've been around a long time, but we're seeing more of them now as companies are struggling to find new ways to cut their costs short of layoffs," said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Furloughs are midway up the ladder of cost-cutting techniques, somewhere between minor steps such as cutting travel budgets and the most drastic measure: layoffs.
Also on the ladder are steps such as cutting wages, reducing or eliminating 401(k) matching, absorbing fewer health insurance costs and cutting workweeks (and pay) to four or fewer days.
Lesser measures than layoffs may be working, Challenger said. In 2001, more than 1.9 million jobs were cut nationwide. In 2008, the number was 1.2 million.
"People are not as interchangeable as companies perhaps once thought," Challenger said. "After layoffs, there is always chaos, and the things people did can't be passed on. So much gets lost."
Several Seattle-area companies have implemented mandatory unpaid leaves recently.
For Fluke Networks, an Everett-based maker of testing equipment, furloughs are just the latest in a series of ongoing cost-cutting maneuvers, said one longtime employee who asked not to be identified.
The business, one of several Fluke companies owned by Washington, D.C.-based Danaher Corp., in November laid off 10 percent of its U.S. work force, or 50 people. The next month, it laid off at least 10 more in Everett.
In September, it required workers to use before Jan. 1 any vacation time they had accrued -- and declared there would be no pay increases in 2008 or 2009.
Finally, about a week before Christmas, all Fluke Networks workers were told they must take the six workdays between Jan. 2 and Jan. 9 as unpaid vacation days.
"They said this will help them meet the numbers early, rather than being reactive later in the year," the employee said. "That makes sense to me and in general to my co-workers, too. Everyone I know has been pretty understanding."
Not that being idled without a paycheck is a pleasure.
"It's a hard time, because all the Christmas bills are hitting," she said.
She said sister company Fluke Corp. has imposed a mandatory three- or four-day break recently and that Fluke Biomedical, another Danaher subsidiary, required workers to take off between two and three weeks.
But, like several workers contacted at Seattle companies, she said the breaks are far preferable to layoffs.
"Everyone is well aware that after those two layoffs, well, this sucks, but at least we still have a job," she said. "And so far, they are still matching our 401(k)s."
Fluke spokesman Larry Wilson declined to comment for this story.
The Seattle Repertory Theatre recently asked all its full-time annual employees, about 55, to take two-week unpaid leaves sometime before its fiscal year ends June 30.
Managing director Ben Moore said that measure, along with others in the past six months, may save $500,000 this fiscal year. The theater's budget this year is just under $10 million.
Rep employees also are being required to take their vacations promptly rather than carrying them over into fiscal 2009, thus reducing the liability the theater is required to carry on its books. And the theater is omitting some of its usual contributions to the 403(b) plans of its workers.
"The next step would have been taking away medical benefits. We're not doing that, so unfortunately, we had to turn to furloughing," Moore said.
The state of Washington said that it plans no mandatory furloughs, but that individual departments and divisions may implement them if they wish.
King County is requiring all but a few employees to take 10 specified days off in 2009 to help close a budget deficit of $93.4 million. The measure is expected to save $10.1 million in 2009, according to the county.
County ecologist Ruth Schaefer, 60, said she doesn't mind the furlough. The Magnolia resident said the worst thing about it was learning of its existence from a newspaper article rather than through her union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 17.
She said the furlough, which in general puts the 10 required days off just before or after paid holidays, "gives people more time off, which I think they like."
She used her first furloughed day, Jan. 2, to deal with a death in the family.
"It made life a little easier for me," she said.
For Schaefer, the income lost over the unpaid days is slightly more than offset by a cost-of-living increase that was reduced, but not eliminated, by her union during negotiations with the county, she said.
"Everyone understands we're headed into a possible full-blown depression, and this is preferable to layoffs -- especially with no real loss of income," she said.
P-I reporter Dan Richman can be reached at 206-448-8032 or danrichman@seattlepi.com.
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Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/395915_unpaidvacation14.html?source=mypi
