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Photocircuits’ GM rebuts PTC ‘toxic waste’ charge

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

The first round of layoffs at Photocircuits in Peachtree City took place earlier this month, and the majority of the rest are expected to wrap up in mid- to late June, according to Plant Manager Scott Formel.

A total of 102 employees have been laid off so far, and some other positions were vacated by those who left to find work elsewhere since the layoffs were announced in December, Formel said.

Once the layoffs are complete, there will be roughly 80 to 100 employees left to continue one branch of the circuit board production business “that we still think has a future,” Formel said Monday afternoon.

Allegations that the remaining Photocircuits plant was being retained to avoid cleanup costs, brought by a current Photocircuits employee in an e-mail to The Citizen, are simply untrue, Formel said.

“We are in full compliance (with environmental regulations) and our record speaks for itself,” Formel said.

The laid-off employees, who are being phased out as the plant meets the remaining needs of its customers, will total more than 500 by the time all is said and done, Formel said.

Brian Cardoza, president and CEO of the Fayette County Development Authority, said the Georgia Department of Labor and a “workforce” team from the Atlanta Regional Commission have done a great job in finding other jobs for Photocircuits employees, and that was one reason the first round of layoffs didn’t occur until now.

“That speaks a lot, too, for what Photocircuits is trying to do for its employees,” Cardoza said. “I think they’re trying to make the best of a bad situation.”

Photocircuits was once the county’s second-largest employer and has been a tremendous asset to the community, Cardoza noted.

Photocircuits employees have received job search and resume training from the Georgia Department of Labor, which has posted more than 200 available jobs in the area in the offices of Photocircuits’ human resources department, Formel said.

Additionally, since the jobs are being considered lost due to “outsourcing,” some employees are eligible for up to two years of unemployment pay and retraining assistance from the state. And it appears some Photocircuits employees will take advantage of that, Formel said.

Through it all, the employees have been professional, Formel said.

“Clearly it’s not a happy situation when people are losing their jobs,” Formel said. “They don’t like it. And I don’t like it either.”

There were substantial negotiations with state officials to create a package to keep the main Photocircuits plant online, but no agreement could be reached, Formel said. The state was unable to provide grant money to the company to provide a needed cash infusion, even though Photocircuits could have applied for loans from the state, Cardoza said.

The company had decided to consolidate its operations, and Fayette officials hoped to convince Photocircuits to move its operations in Glen Cove, N.Y., to here.

But because of the grant issue, and there was no additional infrastructure needed that could be contributed by local government bodies, it was difficult to help Photocircuits, Cardoza said.

The negotiations to try and keep Photocircuits started in the summer, and the company communicated well with employees so when the layoffs were announced just before Christmas last year, it didn’t come as a big surprise, Cardoza added.

“We did everything we possibly could do, but it just didn’t work out,” Cardoza said.

Formel declined to get into details of the separation packages offered to employees, but he noted that some employees got different compensation because they were particularly needed to get the main plant shut down.

“We’re just trying to wind it down as best we can,” Formel said. “The objective of the organization is to try and stay in business.”

The remaining 80 to 100 employees who will work in the Photocircuits “350 building” will be manufacturing circuit boards that do not need to go through the plating process, Formel said. They will occupy a 105,000 square-foot building on a 10-acre site in Peachtree City’s industrial park.

Formel stood by the way the company has handled the layoffs. The company notified employees “as soon as we found out” in December that it was shutting down one of its plants here, Formel said. That is contrary to the accusation of a Photocircuits employee in a letter to the editor printed in this issue, who claimed the company knew of the shutdown in September.

The final shutdown date has fluctuated a little because Photocircuits is trying to meet the final needs of its customers, both the ones it’s losing and the ones that are being outsourced to China, Formel said.