W’burg IT company lays off 80

About 80 workers at a Williamsburg business are without a job after being laid off last week, but city leaders caution that the layoffs might only be temporary.

Employees at CSC (Computer Science Corporation) in Williamsburg, were reportedly called into the office Friday morning and told of the layoffs. The facility was formerly known as Datatrac.

“It breaks my heart that these people are getting laid off especially around the holidays,” said Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison.

Harrison said he was contacted by CSC officials Thursday evening and told they wanted to meet with him and Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird early the next morning.

Harrison said he and Bird met with supervisors at the facility about 9 a.m., and were informed about the layoffs.

According to a media report, security was on hand to escort laid off workers from the building Friday after they were informed they had been laid off.

Harrison said plant officials asked for extra police patrols around the facility strictly as a precautionary measure.

He said the layoffs had nothing to do with the quality of the local workforce.
“There was not anything against our workforce. They actually were praising our workforce,” Harrison said.

He noted that CSC supervisors told him employees were actually exceeding the expected worked load almost doubling it, which created part of the problem.

Harrison said funding apparently hasn’t been allocated from Washington to cover the additional workload.

“They do think now that they might be able to go back some time in March and get some more funding,” Harrison said. “I have been calling as many people in Washington as I possibly can to see if we can expedite the funding and get them back to work as soon as possible.”

The Williamsburg facility opened in September 2006 as Datatrac Information Services Inc.
The facility digitizes data for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by providing document scanning, physical and electronic records management, metadata capture and data transmission. When the Williamsburg facility first opened, it employed over 250 employees. On Dec. 7, 2006, CSC announced that it had agreed to acquire Datatrac.

Computer Sciences Corporation is a leading information technology (IT) services company. CSC’s mission is to be a global leader in providing technology-enabled business solutions and services. The company employs over 78,000 people.

Mike Dickerson, CSC Director of Corporate Media Relations, said in an email Monday afternoon that he was attempting to gather information about the matter, but hadn’t contacted the News Journal again by press time Tuesday.