Laid-Off INL Workers Will Get Help Through Federal Grant

Idaho National Laboratory

INL's Materials and Fuels Complex in southeastern Idaho.

The Idaho Department of Labor will receive a $1,045,000 federal grant to assist Idaho National Laboratory workers who lost their jobs late last year.  About 600 people were laid off by three INL contractors, according to Department of Labor spokesman Bob Fick.  The department estimates about 175 of those workers will seek help through its field offices.

The funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Labor through what’s called a National Emergency Grant.  The grant money can assist laid-off workers in many ways.  It can be used for education or on-the-job training, for example, or even for the cost of getting to an out-of-state interview.  “It depends on the people who take advantage of it,” Fick says.  “It will be tailored to them.”

This is the fifth National Emergency Grant the Idaho Department of Labor has received since the start of 2010.  Spending from those grants totals more than $5.5 million, so far.  Fick says INL workers have already begun to search out assistance through the state Department of Labor.