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Clean-tech pioneer First Mode braces for more layoffs

First Mode, a Seattle-based company that’s concentrating on reducing carbon emissions in mining and other heavy industries, has alerted its employees to a significant round of layoffs that’s expected to unfold in early August.

A memo sent out today to U.S. employees doesn’t specify how many will be laid off — and emphasized that “individual determinations are still in process.” But First Mode told me in an email that the layoffs could amount to as much as 50% of the company’s global workforce.

In the memo to employees, chief people officer Mornie Robertson said the total number of impacted workers in the U.S. “will be large enough” to obligate First Mode to provide all U.S. employees with notification under the terms of the WARN Act. That blanket 60-day advance notification accompanied today’s memo.

“Impacted employees will be notified the week of August 5,” Robertson wrote.

By Alan Boyle

Mastermind of Cosmic Log, contributor to GeekWire and Universe Today, author of "The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference," past president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

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