311 Austin Layoffs Slated At Parsley Energy, Southwest Airlines

AUSTIN, TX — Parsley Energy and Southwest Airlines, are laying off more than 300 employees in Austin, according to newly filed notices with state regulators released Friday.

The furlough notices were filed with the Texas Workers Commission in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act compelling employers with 100 or more workers to provide a 60-day advance notice of job cuts. Patch secured related correspondence from regulators detailing the reasons for the imminent layoffs.

The bulk of the furloughs are slated for Parsley Energy, which plans to close its local offices at 303 Colorado St., 301 Congress Ave. and at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, 4309 Emma Browning Ave., according to correspondence to regulators. The closures, officials wrote, will result in 234 layoffs.

The cuts come after the company's was sold to Pioneer Natural Resources, officials explained. The buyer purchased Parsley Energy in a deal valued at around $4.5 billion. The deal is part of a prevailing trend of consolidation among shale producers financially hit amid decreased oil demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to reports.

The office closures and layoffs are expected to be permanent, a human resources official wrote to regulators. Affected workers will be offered transfers to Pioneer Natural Resources offices in the Texas cities of Las Colinas and Midland, according to the correspondence, but those declining the offer will be terminated. The expected date of termination for affected workers is Feb. 8, 2021, the human resources officials wrote.

Another 77 layoffs are planned at Southwest Airlines, as detailed in separate correspondence to regulators. Airline officials blamed the negative financial impact of the pandemic for the planned layoffs.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated domestic air travel and tourism," a company official wrote the Texas Workers Commission. "As a result, Southwest Airlines has lost billions of dollars in revenues since the pandemic began."

The mass furlough is scheduled to take place on March 15, 2021, according to the correspondence. Austin is not the only city affected, the company official noted. Another 142 layoffs are slated in Bexar County; 79 in the Gulf Coast region; 475 in Dallas County; and 54 at the William Hobby Airport in Houston. All told, 827 layoffs (including those in Travis County) are planned at the carrier statewide.

The company official alerting regulators to layoffs described steps taken to avoid furloughs that ultimately proved unsuccessful: "To help offset that revenue loss, Southwest has reduced annual 2020 cash outlays and spending by approximately $8 billion compared with original plans. Southwest has also raised cash of approximately $18.9 billion since the beginning of 2020, but we cannot disregard our almost 70 percent revenue loss in third quarter 2020."

According to the correspondence, the airline secured federal Payroll Support Program (PSP) funds tailored for the airline industry which enabled job retention through Sept. 30. Additionally, the company official wrote, Southwest implemented voluntary separation and extended emergency time off programs to avoid layoffs, resulting in a 25 percent employee response rate.

"However, with PSP’s expiration and no clarity that Congress will extend it in the future," the company wrote, "Southwest must take further action to reduce our costs associated with Employee salaries, wages, and benefits — the largest cost category by far."