Newport News Shipbuilding is offering eligible employees severance pay due to company reorganization and to offset overhead costs.
More than 2,500 employees will be affected, said Duane Bourne, spokesman for NNS.
The offer was announced by Jennifer Boykin, NNS president, in a letter sent to shipbuilding employees Monday, just one week before Christmas.
According to the letter, NNS will continue to consolidate certain company functions, i.e. combining leadership development and workforce training and will offer an optional severance program for salaried employees to cut overhead costs.
Employees who qualify for voluntary severance program, or VSP, are salaried, non-union employees, including manager 3, director level and those who planned to retire prior to Dec. 17. Eligible employees can receive up to 26 weeks of severance pay and be officially separated from the company by Mar. 1, according to the letter.
Corporate employees who work in the government, customer relations, benefits and law departments, including vice presidents, and those who work offsite, are ineligible for the severance program.
“I want to stress that we are still hiring, and will continue to hire primarily direct charging positions throughout 2019,” Boykin wrote.
The shipyard is a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. It’s also one of two yards that builds nuclear-powered submarines.
