Dec. 10, 2004

Response to criteria for salary increase

The Laboratory chose the effective date of Dec. 6 for merit increases (i.e. when "significant progress" had been achieved) because the Laboratory believed, based on consistent monitoring of resumption progress, that the early December time frame was when the vast majority of Laboratory activities would be approved for resumption. This date was not selected to artificially hasten the resumption in any way. To the contrary, the institution has made it very clear that resumption of each activity is to be achieved through a thoughtful, thorough and deliberate process, and to date this has been accomplished. As everyone at the Laboratory can appreciate, resuming activities is a much more complex endeavor for some activities than it is for others.

And this brings up a final point: We are one Laboratory. In making the decision about when significant progress would be achieved, the Laboratory looked at the institution as a whole and did not place value judgments on organizations that took more or less time to resume activities. The goal of the resumption continues to be to provide uncompromising assurance that work at the Laboratory is done safely, securely and compliantly. Every Laboratory employee has a stake in that assurance.

--Jessica Pascual, Compensation (HR-C) group leader