Boeing Co. workers can call the company’s service center at 888-747-2016 for specific information about the benefits and programs available to them in the event of a layoff. The information also is available on Boeing’s intranet.
For career counseling and other help finding new jobs, call Boeing’s Everett Career Transition Center at 425-717-1634, or the Boeing/Machinists Quality Through Training Program at 425-342-9973
Other tips for laid-off workers.
While you shouldn’t wait to start looking for a new job, you must wait until you are actually laid off to sign up for unemployment insurance. Payments start the third week after your last day of work and range from $106 to $496 a week, based on earnings history, and run from 13 to 30 weeks.
Drawing Boeing severance checks won’t hurt your eligibility for unemployment. Boeing is paying laid off workers a severance of one week’s pay for every full year worked. It can be taken as a lump sum, or weekly checks. If you’ve taken severance pay after a layoff within the past three years, you aren’t eligible for severance pay if laid off again.
Boeing workers can accelerate the layoff process if they are offered a new job after getting a 60-day layoff notice – and can still draw severance pay, said Renee Martin, a Boeing human resources generalist. “We don’t want to stand in the way of them getting another job,” she said.
The money paid into company-sponsored retirement savings programs is fully vested. So is the company’s matching contribution. You can leave it in place, roll it over into an individual retirement account or withdraw it. If you draw out all or part of it, Boeing will withhold 20 percent to cover income taxes.
Medical insurance continues for three months for all employees. Dental insurance extends three months for nonunion workers, but is cut off at the end of the month you’re laid off if you belong to a union. Life insurance ends the day you’re laid off. If you pay into a health care reimbursement account, you can still use the money in that account until April 30.
Boeing, the International Association of Machinists and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace plan a job fair Dec. 11 at the IAM District 751 Hall in Seattle.
If you want to be called back to Boeing, you must submit a letter in writing twice a year, in January and July.
Final checks for those laid off Dec. 14 will be mailed out Jan. 3. That check will include cash for your vacation time, your first week of severance pay and pay for any hours you worked Dec. 14.
