NEW ORLEANS — The Archdiocese of New Orleans plans to lay off 19 employees in the fall, a move that it says is necessary because of the coronavirus pandemic and a financial reorganization following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing earlier this year, according to a notice filed with the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
Affected employees are set to lose their positions on Sept. 15, said the notice signed by the archdiocese’s director of human resources, Karen Heil. Her letter, dated July 15, said those who will be laid off include people who had been furloughed as a result of the economic downturn accompanying the pandemic as well as some who had continued to work.
Word of the archdiocesan layoffs became public in what is called a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, posted on the state Workforce Commission’s website Monday. Federal law requires all but the smallest companies to give employees and state officials notice 60 days in advance of closures or numerous layoffs.
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The church joins dozens of other regional employers who have laid off workers or cut hours amid the recession parallel to the pandemic. Some businesses have been forced to close for good.
In the most recent financial filings available online, the archdiocese reported having 205 employees, meaning the layoffs would represent just under 10% of that staff.
The layoffs range from clerical workers to assistant directors.
The WARN notice said none of the workers are represented by a union, nor do they hold “bumping rights” which would allow them to take the job of a less senior employee.
The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections on May 1, saying that its administrative offices' finances had been dealt blows by closures related to the pandemic as well as the cost of litigating dozens of lawsuits pertaining to its ongoing clergy abuse scandal.
At least nine schools within the archdiocese received $5.5 million in loans from area banks to help the institutions pay salaries for teachers as well as other employees during the shutdowns precipitated by the pandemic. But archdiocesan officials have said that their administrative offices are separate from the schools and did not receive such financial assistance.
