Wilmington, DE, Jun. 2--Invista, the former DuPont Co. textile and interiors business, has informed the state it intends to cut 85 of the 111 employees in its research and development operations at the Experimental Station near Wilmington, as reported by Delaware Online.
Layoffs are scheduled to begin July 10 or soon after and are expected to be permanent.
The company, which DuPont sold to a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc. of Wichita, KS at the end of April, notified the Delaware Department of Labor by letter as part of a federal law passed in 1989 that requires employers of 100 or more workers to give notice of mass layoffs.
Invista said in early May it plans to discontinue operations at DuPont's Experimental Station by the end of the year, but it had declined to say how many employees would be affected by the decision. One Invista employee at the Experimental Station, who asked not to be named for fear of losing severance benefits, said he was notified last week that he would lose his job in July.
Cheryl Parker, Invista spokeswoman, said the process to begin notifying employees about the layoffs began on May 11.
Koch, which is privately held, had said before the $4.2 billion sale was completed that Invista would undergo a restructuring to integrate Koch's polyester and resins subsidiary, called KoSa, into the former DuPont business. KoSa employs about 5,500 people; Invista employs about 18,000. Parker said restructuring Invista involves reviewing every site worldwide. She said she didn't know whether more Delaware sites would be affected.
Eligible Invista workers will get severance packages, Parker said. But she would not provide details.
At the time of the sale, there were about 600 Invista employees in the Wilmington area, primarily at DuPont's Chestnut Run site near Greenville, Parker said. The remaining 650 Invista employees in Delaware are at the manufacturing plant in Seaford.
Invista has said it plans to keep only two of its six businesses--apparel and performance fibers--in either the Wilmington area, southeastern Pennsylvania or southwestern New Jersey.
That means at most 250 employees could remain in New Castle County, in addition to those in Seaford.
