Tri-Cities’ largest employer notifies WA it’s laying off 68 workers Updated 17 mins ago

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is laying off 68 workers, including 42 at its primary laboratory in Richland.

The Richland laboratory is operated by the Battelle Memorial Institute for the Department of Energy.

It notified the state Employment Security Department of the layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act on Nov. 18.

The notice indicates the layoffs are permanent. They began Wednesday and will be complete by Dec. 1.

The layoffs also affect three employees in Seattle, three remote workers in Washington, 17 remote employees outside Washington and three at PNNL sites in Oregon.

PNNL, one of the largest private employers in the Tri-Cities with 6,400 employees, previously disclosed it planned to cut 130 positions as it prepared for uncertain fundin