Citing a decline in heavy construction due to the slowdown in new housing, Advanced Steel Technology Inc said that it had sent a letter of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification to its employees. The letter is required by federal law in the case of job reductions.

Ms Linda Hales HR manager said that 91 employees have been laid off for the short term and 10 non salaried employees remain.

In a statement, the company said it had never had a layoff since it established the Rome plant in 1990. The statement said that "In spite of the necessity of sending the WARN letter we are continuing to monitor the situation and have been able to provide employee benefits where possible during the reduction in hours. It has not been necessary to permanently lay off any employee at AST."

It added that "We will continue to evaluate the situation and because our core customer base is Komatsu, Caterpillar, Kobelco, Toyota and MCFA we fully anticipate returning to a normal work schedule in the future."

(Sourced from www.reuters.com)