Jan. 20--KAUKAUNA -- Employers are increasingly resorting to unpaid furloughs -- temporary layoffs that amount to one-time pay cuts for workers -- to wring savings from stressed budgets.

In 2008, the number of temporarily laid-off workers topped 1.2 million, a 17-year high for the category. Of 10.3 million unemployed workers in November, roughly 12 percent were out of work due to temporary layoffs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

They're "kind of employment purgatory, but it's better than the alternative," said Carl Van Horn, a professor of public policy at Rutgers University, referring to the alternative of permanent job loss.

At Kaukauna-based Thilmany Papers last month, workers had the choice of tapping vacation or taking unpaid leave during a scheduled, market-related shutdown.

"We had the option of taking vacation or taking a layoff, and I took vacation," said Kim Newling, a worker at the Kaukauna mill and one of roughly 250 affected at that mill and the Nicolet facility in De Pere.

Newling was paid for his leave because he could tap into his 2009 vacation allotment. Most others agreed to unpaid furloughs and filed for unemployment insurance with the state Department of Workforce Development, he said.

Furloughs and scheduled downtime are nothing new in the paper industry. But Thilmany's way of dealing with the issue at least gave workers some gainful choices.

"Because ours (shutdown) fell in December, we gave people the option of borrowing from their 2009 vacation," said Addie Boland, human resources manager for Thilmany's Nicolet mill.

"Two of the weeks fell over Christmas and New Year's so we informed employees that if they were able to use 24 hours of vacation time they would be able to get paid the 16 hours holiday pay on top of that."

State governments, factories and universities are all ordering unpaid leaves to rein in expenses.

The University of Maryland Medical Center has required unpaid time off for 67,000 of its 80,000 employees as it struggles with a budget crisis. The state said the furloughs would save an estimated $34 million during the fiscal year.

An administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh said the campus of 12,700 students isn't contemplating unpaid leaves despite the impending $5.4 billion state budget deficit.

"We're all trying to manage the costs through attrition," said Tom Sonnleitner, vice chancellor for administration at UWO.

"With our position issues we're monitoring very carefully the hires. (But) we are also committed to the Growth Agenda and are continuing to hire faculty to meet that goal. It's all about access."

Virginia-based Gannett Co., publisher of The Post-Crescent, said last week it will institute one-week unpaid furloughs corporatewide to avoid further layoffs.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

GROWING TREND

The number of temporarily laid off workers topped 1.2 million in 2008, a 17-year high for the category. Of 10.3 million unemployed workers in November, roughly 12 percent were out of work due to temporary layoffs.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

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