IBM Challenges Release of Recent Layoff Figures

IBM is fighting the release of the number of employees affected by its recent round of layoffs. The company has supplied the list of laid-off workers to the Department of Labor, as requested by the state, but claims that a public release of the tally would cause the company "competitive harm."

Adhering to the state's Employment Security Board regulations, IBM confirmed within 24 hours that a "mass separation" had taken effect. (In this case, the threshold that defines a mass separation is just 25 or more employees losing their jobs.) Based on attendance at the unemployment division's Rapid Response sessions, it is estimated that at least 300 people were let go from the computer chip manufacturing plant.

The technology company complied with Dept. of Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan's request for details on the employees who were let go, but the list was accompanied by an assertion that the state could not release even the total number to the public. "It claims that release of the information will cause competitive harm to IBM, as well as harm to the individual employees," according to a Labor Department news release. IBM cited trade secret and competitive business exemptions from the state's Public Records Act.

Noonan disagrees with that interpretation. But, she said in a phone interview, "The department is taking the time to review and examine any and all exemptions from the public record law." The Labor Department does not dispute that information that could be used to identify individual former employees should be exempt from disclosure. "Both the (Shumlin) administration and the (Labor) Department would like to see IBM publicly disclose the final tally," Noonan said. "It would assist in local response to the separation," she added. History shows that it is not uncommon for Vermont employers to announce in advance the number of layoffs planned for their businesses.

IBM had previously made the case that withholding the number of layoffs until after they were finalized was a matter of accuracy: Some workers were still eligible for reassignment within the company. With the mass separation official, that reasoning has become moot. Now, IBM has given the tally to the Labor Department, but claims the state cannot release it. "Given earlier conversations with IBM, I did not anticipate that IBM would not want to share the final tally once the layoffs were determined," Noonan said. IBM could not be immediately reached for comment.