Companies Handing Out Unpaid Vacation

Strapped Universities, Hospitals, Companies Using Mandatory Furloughs To Cut Costs

(AP)  Here's the vacation no one wants, courtesy of the recession: Forced time off without pay.

Financially struggling universities, factories and even hospitals are requiring employees to take unpaid "furloughs" - temporary layoffs that amount to one-time pay cuts for workers and a cost savings for employers. This year, the number of temporarily laid off workers hit a 17-year high.

"If they do it once, I think it's easier for them to try to do it again," said Carrie Swartout, who researches traumatic brain injuries at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Maryland is requiring unpaid time off for 67,000 of its 80,000 employees as it struggles with a budget crisis. The state says the furloughs will save an estimated $34 million during the fiscal year.

State governments, facing lower revenues but stymied by the long process required to cut public sector jobs, are using furloughs as a quick way to trim payrolls. Private-sector businesses - from automakers to small businesses - are shutting down factories and offices as sales drop.

The temporary layoffs are "kind of employment purgatory, but it's better than the alternative," said Carl Van Horn, a professor of public policy at Rutgers University. They're a typical response to decreasing demand in a recession, although this round is slightly worse than past bad recessions, Van Horn said.

Of 10.3 million unemployed workers in November, roughly 12 percent were unemployed because of temporary layoffs, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The last time this many workers fell into the category was February 1991, when 1.4 million workers were unemployed because of temporary layoffs. As a proportion of the total work force, workers on temporary layoff are roughly 1 percent, nearly the same now as 17 years ago.

The numbers, based on a Census Bureau survey of households, likely understate temporary layoffs. The survey asks about participants' working hours during the prior week, so a worker who knows he faces a temporary layoff later in the month would not be included.

Swartout, the 28-year-old Maryland researcher, could lose as much as $800 in pay, or nearly 2 percent of her salary, depending on how long she's furloughed. "That's a huge chunk," she said. The timing and duration of the furloughs of non-critical state workers are still unclear, she said, but the loss will mean she'll struggle to make her monthly $500 student loan payment.

At state-funded Winthrop University in South Carolina, workers are being asked to stagger days of unpaid leave as the state's sales tax revenue declines. Professors were told to take nine furlough days without canceling classes or office hours, missing meetings or interfering with any other university responsibility. They are required to take the days before June 30, when the university's fiscal year ends.

Education professor Nakia Pope, 32, calculates that there are 11 days before and after the semester and over spring break when he could take unpaid time, but he and his colleagues would normally work most of those days, preparing materials, grading and writing or doing research.

"Most faculty I know will end up taking few if any of those furlough days off- they'll just go about doing the good jobs they normally do for less money," he said.

"I'm grateful to be working at all, considering I live in the state with the third-highest unemployment in the nation and I think Winthrop is doing the best it can managing the situation it's been given by the state - but it's a mess," said Pope, who said the days off will amount to a 6 percent pay cut. "That's a pretty big hit."

Like other workers facing forced time off, Pope said his family will have to cut its spending.

For factory workers, unpaid time is coming in the form of extended shutdowns as manufacturers try to reduce inventory of everything from aluminum to newsprint to fertilizer.

This month, RV maker Winnebago Industries Inc. said that all its workers, including Chief Executive Bob Olson, would take an unpaid week off during the current quarter, along with a two-week production shutdown during the holidays. 3M Co. said early this month that it had ordered some workers to take vacation or unpaid time for the last two weeks of the year. Computer maker Dell Inc. in November asked employees to consider taking unpaid vacation days during the fourth quarter.

Chrysler, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have all extended their annual holiday shutdowns, typically the last two weeks of the year. The moves will idle tens of thousands of workers both at the major automakers and their suppliers. Tire maker Michelin, parts makers BorgWarner Inc. and Gentex Corp. have also announced shutdowns of varying lengths beginning in December and ending in January.

At some companies, the furloughs are a prelude to a permanent layoff.

Trinh Nguyen, 23, was called into a conference room with four other workers in late December at the 50-person Baltimore architecture and design firm where he works. The group was told that they were on a 30-day furlough, starting Dec. 10. "They tried to lighten (it) up as not a termination," said Nguyen, who asked that the company not be named.

As he sees it, most of his co-workers will spend the time hunting for new work. Those who succeed won't qualify for severance payments they would have gotten had they been laid off. That would make the furloughs a way for the company to save money both on paychecks and severance - if workers can find other jobs.

"It's just a harsh situation," he said.

[whitemale08]

I love how the Federal Reserve counts employment...

1. If you work at McDonalds you are employed.
2. If you work in transportation paid by the mile.
3. If you work as a temp.
4. If you work the equivalent of 2 jobs in overtime.
5. If you are a relative who babysits a relative.
6. If you collect disability.
7. If you haven''t look for a job in over 6 months.
8. If you are a consultant.
9. If you live overseas.

If you really count the unemployed it will show more then 21% unemployment during the Great Depression.

[debinok1]

Mandatory unpaid vacation is what we just had. Instead of our standard three days(paid) and the weekend for christmas, we had nine days(unpaid). That was after ninety employees were layed off in three weeks time. We have a company wide meeting friday to determine if the employees are willing to take voluntary cuts in pay and hours before the decision is made to lay more people off.

[daisyjingles]

I would rather have forced time off than to lose my job altogether.

[rhs648]

love how the Federal Reserve counts employment...

1. If you work at McDonalds you are employed.
2. If you work in transportation paid by the mile.
3. If you work as a temp.
4. If you work the equivalent of 2 jobs in overtime.
5. If you are a relative who babysits a relative.
6. If you collect disability.
7. If you haven''''t look for a job in over 6 months.
8. If you are a consultant.
9. If you live overseas.

If you really count the unemployed it will show more then 21% unemployment during the Great Depression.

Posted by whitemale08

Not everyone fits the same job description. There are people who are self-employed, independent contractors, hourly wage earners, and salaried employees. There are people who are paid by the miles and people paid for piece work. And then there are people paid commissions only on what they sell. I spent 13 years as a commissioned salesperson who only got paid if I sold products. Was I employed or unemployed when I didn''t receive a paycheck some weeks? Not everyone easily fits any one description.

[mtminds]

This is a low life ploy that''s been used for more than a decade. While the worker bees that made the profits for the company get leave without pay, the upper management get more bonuses for their cost cutting measures. Go figure.

[ramos937]

I own a small business and employ 36 people. This is a terrible practice. I invest a lot of money in training my people. Every day, when we close, a huge amount of my assets walk out of the door. Every time I lose an employee for whatever reason, I lose a valuable asset. Since I collect a pension already, I would cut my pay before I cut one of my people.

Employers must stop looking to cutting employees wages as a primary means of cutting costs. There are always other ways to do that. If you do not know these, just ask your people. They do.

[rudy6543]

This is all a crock of krap and the azzhoels know it. These medical centers are ripping people off left and right and getting away with it. Then they have the nerve to go after their employees to rip them off? We need national health care and soon. Notice how the execs don''t bother cutting their wages even though they spend most of their time at the country club.

[rudy6543]

And I really feel sorry for people on unemployment. Just try getting through by phone if there is just any difficulty at all. Many people are getting denied benefits and when they try to appeal or question the employment department they get told that the basturrds are just too busy with other people and to call back at better hours, hours that simply don''t exist.

[lastdance136]

CBS NEWS : Explain this Threat : To use a Firearm
Posted by : txgrouch2008
_____
The world is a safer place beause I have a gun.
The world is a safer place because YOU DON''''T.
Posted by txgrouch2008 at 10:57 PM : Dec 30, 2008

[mytoosense]

lastdance136,
Have you been up all night?
Go to bed.

[comeon11]

lastdance136......................stop the man envy.

[comeon11]

This is about to get bad, really bad. it will take a couple of years to start bouncing back.

[sockpuppet4]

They are correct in assuming that if they do it once they will continue to do it.

The oil embargo of the seventies made a lot of communities desperate. They started offering tax breaks, or no tax to companies to settle in their community. The taxes were made up by the people in the community.

Here it is 2009 and it is common practice thruout the United States.

Companies have become spoiled and dont pay their share any more.

Companies will continue to manipulate time off, and vacations from here on out.

Take that to the bank.

[ofbyfor3]

This is a low life ploy that''''s been used for more than a decade. While the worker bees that made the profits for the company get leave without pay, the upper management get more bonuses for their cost cutting measures. Go figure.

Posted by mtminds at 02:39 AM : Dec 31, 2008

I agree. Make the guys at the top take a ''temporary'' cut in pay to keep the lower employees going. The lower-paid employees will put that money directly back into the economy, guaranteed. No guarantee that the upper level will.

[antoniof123]

Well, the rich get richer and just don''t get it.

Like before the French revolution "Let them eat cake."

Then the French said "Off with her head."

I wonder if the rich suffer from dipping in the same gene pool too much or if they are just plain stupid.

[brannigon]

Companies Handing Out Unpaid Vacation? Then its not a vacation is it? DUH! Its a chance to find another job!

[scotch41-2009]

lastdance136 & txgrouch, this is for you

|^^^^^^^^^^^||____
| The **** Truck |||""''|""__,_
| _____________ l||__|__|__|)
|(@)@)"""""""**|(@)(@)**|(@)

[troutfisher4]

Now we face a fundamental question. Do we just roll over and die because slave labor in other countries are lowering production costs and making them more competitive? Or do we do what our predecessors did %u2013 apply reasonable tariffs and bring prosperity back to the USA?

The decision is ours, and the time has come to make it.

Posted by txgrouch2008


And then they put tariffs on our goods, then we increase their tariffs, then they increase our tariffs, and on and on.

[lastdance136]

CBS NEWS : Explain this Advertisement and SOLICITATION for :
S*E*X and PROSTITUTION
Posted by txgrouch2008
____
That''s the SECOND time you''ve mentioned those body parts.
You''re COMING ON to me. Oh, yah. You want me BAD.
Posted by txgrouch2008 at 08:15 PM : Dec 30, 2008

Oh, now you want me to take you to have your ears pierced.
And probably buy you some earrings.
I know what you''re saying. You naughty girl.
Posted by txgrouch2008 at 08:29 PM : Dec 30, 2008

Tell us what REALLY happened. Don''t leave out ANY of the juicy details.
Posted by txgrouch2008 at 08:40 PM : Dec 30, 2008
_____

txgrouch2008

If you want to Advertise and SOLICIT for :
S*E*X and PROSTITUTION
You should do it Elsewhere

This is not the place to : Advertise and SOLICIT for :
S*E*X and PROSTITUTION

[lastdance136]

CBS NEWS : Explain this Threat : To use a Firearm
Posted by : txgrouch2008
_____
The world is a safer place beause I have a gun.
The world is a safer place because YOU DON''''T.
Posted by txgrouch2008 at 10:57 PM : Dec 30, 2008

[eggy1620]

Lastdance must be tired of writing about war baby sick beds.

[mitch5511]

What''s really bad about this situation is that these "furloughed" employees can''t file for unemployment so they are left with nothing. I hope they all have some savings to help them through it.

Another good reason why unions are a necessity for the blue collar worker.

[credibility2]

This is yet another way for business to control their workers by placing the fear in them. It always happens in a down economy. I''ve yet to see anyone complain about the egregious salaries and the like sport''s and other entertainment figures get, especially since many don''t do their jobs well and aren''t really making a difference to the betterment of others; play and entertainment are hardly considered betterment. These amounts are just as disgusting as some of the pay packages CEOs and upper management get.

[caldwellptr]

I guess this means it is time to ask the Unions for another concession.