BY DIRK PERREFORT
Hearst Connecticut Media
State labor officials will be in the Danbury area to help dozens of workers who will lose their jobs in the coming months as Smiths Detection leaves the city.
According to a filing by the company with the state Labor Department, 90 employees will be laid off starting next month until the company closes at the end of February.
Officials with Smiths Detection, a defense contractor with offices in Commerce Park, confirmed last month the company plans to move its local operations to the company’s headquarters in Maryland.
“The decision to move operations to Edgewood is to ensure competitiveness while optimizing our Maryland headquarters,” Dana Knox-Gower, director of communications for the company, said Sept. 3. “It wasn’t an easy decision because our talented Danbury workforce has a successful track record of satisfying customers like the Transportation Security Administration and Homeland Security agencies with innovative safety and security solutions for years.”
She said the company, which employs about 125 workers locally, will retain some staff who can perform their duties from the Danbury area.
Knox-Gower said state labor officials will inform displaced employees about programs available to them as well as answer questions about jobless claims.
She said the company will provide additional outplacement services as well as other job-seeking tools and resources.
Mayor Mark Boughton said last month he was not happy to see those jobs leaving Connecticut.
“Smiths Detection is in an industry that is government driven and they receive a lot of funding from the federal government,” he said.
“Maryland may work better for them geographically but we also recognize that there are dozens of local families being affected by this.”
Boughton, who bowed out of the gubernatorial race earlier this year, said the company’s departure is another indicator of the need to make Connecticut more business-friendly.
“The challenge for us now will be helping these employees reintegrate into the workforce,” he said.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury.) See newstimes.com for more from this reporter.
