Companies detail more COVID workforce reductions

INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to have an effect on the Hoosier workforce. Several more companies have provided notices to the state detailing layoffs and furloughs affecting a total of 380 employees.

Missouri-based Leggett & Platt Inc. (NYSE: LEG) has announced more temporary layoffs from its No-Sag Products facility in Kendallville and its Merit Steel Co. location in the Porter County town of Kouts. The layoffs involve a total of 176 employees.

Earlier this month, the company announced it was placing 139 employees in Rensselaer on temporary layoffs.

Indianapolis-based Adelta Logis Inc. says as a result of the pandemic, it is placing all 114 full-time employees at its Bristol facility on a 25% reduction of hours furlough. The company says its main customer is a global manufacturing company that has been “greatly impacted by supplier issues and customer business closings.”

Adelta expects to restore the employees to full-time hours in eight weeks.

Two other Bristol manufacturers, Lakota Corp. and SMC Acquisition Corp., have announced temporary layoffs affecting 37 employees and 30 employees, respectively. The companies said the layoffs would be in effect “indefinitely” and did not provide an estimated timeline for the employees to return.

Indianapolis-based Klipsch Group Inc. says it has furloughed 18 employees due to the pandemic. The company also expects the move to be temporary.

Additionally, steelmaker ArcelorMittal is adding to the growing number of layoffs at its various facilities. In its notice to the state, the company said five employees at its Mittal Steel Railways Inc. facility in Burns Harbor are being placed on temporary, unpaid furloughs. 

The company has previously detailed plans to furlough 63 employees at Burns Harbor, as well as a total of more than 230 at its Indiana Harbor photo in East Chicago.