A Knox County business announced Friday that they would cut more than 90 employees from their workforce early in May.
According to Corbin Mayor Willard McBurney, Corbin officials received a letter from General Dynamics via FedEx at around noon Friday announcing the layoff of 93 workers from their Corbin facility.
McBurney said the layoffs, which are permanent "not withstanding the cyclical nature of the work," would take place on May 9. He also confirmed that some workers involved in the layoff were to be told of the action on Friday. The letter says layoff notifications continued through Monday.
The facility currently employs about 385 workers and the cut would decrease their total workforce by about one-fourth.
Knox Judge-Executive J.M. Hall said that as of the end of the day last Friday, the county had not received such a letter about the planned layoff.
"Whenever a big company like that lays off, they have to formally give a letter to us," Hall said, adding that when TruSeal announced cutting of jobs, the county was notified.
Attempts to contact General Dynamics via email were not successful as of press time Friday.
The letter sent to Corbin’s Mayor, dated March 6, was written by Jennifer E. Bailey, Vice President of Human Resources with the company’s Health and Civilian Solutions Division. Bailey details that the cuts will be in the workers involved with the company’s Medicare and Medicaid call center operations in Corbin.
General Dynamics announced in early February it was one of 18 awardees of a five-year, $800 million contract to "develop, test, implement and report healthcare quality measures, including measures that address provider safety, timeliness, effectiveness and equitability in a variety of healthcare settings." It was to provide support to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"General Dynamics will also collect and analyze data to assist CMS in identifying trends related to care for patients that move from one setting to another – such as from hospital care to rehabilitation centers or home-based care. Work will be performed in Des Moines, Iowa, and Towson, Md." the company said in its Feb. 4 press release announcing the contract.
The layoffs seem unexpected. The company’s Corbin location just held a job fair earlier this year and hired new employees in February.
General Dynamics Information Technology provides information technology (IT), systems engineering, professional services and simulation and training to customers in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, health, federal civilian government, state and local government and commercial sectors, according to the company’s website.
