Aug. 9—Late last week, a total of about 100 engineers were laid off at the L3Harris manufacturing plants in Greenville and Plano.
A statement from the defense contractor read: "As part of our continual assessment of resources against business requirements, L3Harris communicated a reduction of its workforce by approximately 100 engineering positions Thursday at its Greenville and Plano, Texas locations, while continuing to hire aircraft mechanics and electricians at our Greenville facility.
"We value the contributions of our employees and have taken measures to mitigate the impact of this event on these individuals by providing them with severance, benefits continuation and job placement support, per our policies."
The reduction in engineering staff was in multiple areas and not focused on one particular engineering discipline (electrical, mechanical, aerospace, etc.), a spokesperson for L3Harris told the Herald-Banner. Also, the affected employees were not all working within one specific program.
As for continuation of benefits, the spokesperson said the severance package given to the employees includes temporary assistance with COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) premiums, and that the employees could choose to continue those benefits, but if they chose not to continue them, their benefits through COBRA ended the day of their dismissal.
In addition to the option to continue with their COBRA benefits, employees who were laid off were provided with "job placement support through a third-party corporate transition service" if they requested help with finding a new job.
As for what criteria was used in determining which employees would be let go (last one in — first one out, first one in — first one out, etc.) L3Harris declined to comment.
L3Harris Greenville plant is the city's largest provider of jobs and employed about 5,500 people as of 2022.
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