An employee who recently learned he will be laid off by the University of Oklahoma Press criticized the layoff procedures and a lack of help in finding new employment within the OU system.

“The reason I got laid off was because when our sales started dropping, you know,” said Jack Williams, a shipping and receiving technician at the OU Press. “I asked a couple of questions and it made them mad in a meeting. And, they were legit questions, I mean, they weren’t bad questions.”

Williams said he questioned marketing decisions made by the OU Press.

“We haven’t made any gross changes [in marketing],” said B. Byron Price, director of the OU Press. “We’ve streamlined the way we’re doing things. We may not be doing things on the same scale, but we’re still doing the things we’ve always done.”

Williams said he had been at the OU Press “a long time,” and that seniority was not considered when the layoffs were issued.

“They didn’t do it by seniority, they just went and done it, who they liked and who they disliked,” Williams said.

The University of Oklahoma staff handbook states that in the event of a reduction in force, “Employee retention will be based on both performance and seniority. Seniority will be considered as total seniority with the university. In the event performance is determined to be equal among employees, seniority will be given weighted consideration.”

Price said decisions regarding which individuals would be laid off followed the procedures laid out in the guide.

“The process is pretty much dictated by the OU Press staff handbook,” Price said. “There are certain processes you have to go through to provide the kind of you know, to look at issues related to the kinds of jobs and job classifications, the years of service. There are a lot of different elements to that and there’s a prescribed method of going through it, working with human resources and so forth.”

Catherine Bishop, Vice President of Public Affairs at OU, denied that the layoffs targeted specific employees.

“In a reduction in force, individuals are not targeted, rather, duties are either collapsed or consolidated, impacting individuals who are responsible for those duties,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Williams also criticized the support he’s received from the university in finding a new position. He said that he’s applied for at least five positions at OU, in both Housing and Food Services and at the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, but that he’s yet to receive a call back from those positions. Williams said the positions he’s applied for have been minimum-wage jobs, which is currently $6.55 an hour, but will increase to $7.25 an hour July 24.

Williams makes $11.95 an hour at the OU Press.

According to the OU Staff Handbook, “It will be the responsibility of the budget unit head or dean to work with Human Resources and the Affirmative Action Office to expedite the procedures as defined. The purpose of this coordination is to ... place those employees designated for layoff in other positions within the university for which they qualify or assure their continued consideration for other positions as they become available.”

Price said he did not know what priority those employees that have been laid off had been given for other positions.

“I know that human resources has been and continues to work with all of the staff that has been impacted in this layoff,” he said. “And I know that some have been interviewing for positions. I have served as a reference for staff. Some have informed me of positions they are interviewing for and others have been more private about that.”