After feeling the pinch of funding cuts for the Energy Department's laboratories, Chicago's Fermi National Laboratory got a small respite last week in the form of a $5-million anonymous donation, allowing it to scrap plans for continued forced furloughs. In order to deal with a $52-million funding shortfall in fiscal 2008 appropriations, Fermilab had instituted a system of mandatory furloughs that was to last through the end of the year. The program required all employees to take time off, with hourly workers taking two days of unpaid vacation every month, and salaried workers taking one week of unpaid vacation every two months. Fermilab Director Pier Oddone said at an all-hands meeting at the lab on May 16 that the donation was "quite encouraging, quite astounding as a symbol of support" for the lab and its work. "This is very unusual. It is not a building that carries a name. It is really a commitment to science in the nation," Oddone said. Oddone said the donation came from an Illinois family, but he added that the donor wished to remain anonymous. While the donation will allow employees to go back to work full time, a plan to lay off 140 of the lab's 1,900 employees will still go forward, according to lab spokesman Kurt Riesselmann. Beginning next month, the lab will proceed with voluntary layoffs, and move to involuntary layoffs in July if 140 people have not decided to leave on their own.
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