Parker Bertea Announces Plans for More Layoffs

Parker Bertea Aerospace, hurt by a downturn in its commercial and military business, plans to lay off an unspecified number of employees next week in Irvine and Utah.

The company will notify workers Monday and the layoffs will take place Friday, said Richard Charlton, a spokesman for Cleveland-based Parker-Hannifin Corp., the parent company of Parker Bertea.

In an April 22 memo to employees, Claus Beneker, general manager of Parker Bertea’s control systems division, said the layoffs are unavoidable because the company’s outlook for new commercial and military work has degraded.

The division manufactures control and navigation systems for military and commercial aircraft. It employs 1,450 people in Irvine and Ogden, Utah.

Charlton said he could not say how many employees would be laid off until next week.

“We haven’t notified our employees yet,” Charlton said. “As a matter of policy, we want them to hear it from us first.”

He said laid-off workers will receive one week’s severance pay for each year of service, up to eight years. The memo said the company would try to find workers jobs at other Parker divisions.

When Parker Bertea announced 41 layoffs in January, company officials attributed the reductions to the Pentagon’s cancellation of the Navy’s A-12 attack plane and a downturn in its commercial business. The company has about 2,900 employees in Irvine, down from about 3,300 a year before.