ALBANY — Large employers in Amsterdam and Ballston Spa have filed mass layoff notices with the state, and one in Colonie has rescinded a previous notice.
In total, 176 employees will be out of work while 43 are getting a reprieve.
The state Department of Labor’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification system requires business with more than 49 employees to provide advance notice of large-scale job reductions. Typically, the threshold is 25 workers or more than 33 percent of the workforce losing their jobs, whichever is greater.
In recent weeks, Breton Industries, Saratoga Center for Rehab and Skilled Nursing Care and Southwest Airlines have submitted WARN notices.
- Breton said it would eliminate 65 of the 82 jobs at its facility on Sam Stratton Road in Amsterdam effective April 15. The longtime military contractor will be ceasing its military products line and commercial line.
- Saratoga Center said it will terminate all 121 employees over the course of 18 days when it closes Jan. 29. The closure was announced in early December, at which time only about one-third of its beds were occupied. The facility was known as Maplewood Manor when Saratoga County owned it; the county sold it in 2015 after years of subsidizing millions in annual losses. The facility was red-flagged in 2019 by state and federal regulators for numerous and persistent health and safety problems. It changed hands soon after.
- Southwest filed a WARN notice in early December saying the impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry would cause it to lay off 43 people at Albany International Airport, 25 at Long Island MacArthur, 125 at LaGuardia, 68 at Buffalo Niagara and eight at Greater Rochester. But extension of the federal Payroll Support Program, which is targeted to the airline industry, eliminated the need to do this, the airline said.
