Alaska Communications set to lay off 5 percent of its workforce

Anchorage-based broadband and IT service company, Alaska Communications, is poised to start reducing its workforce. The company would not disclose how much it was hoping to save by enacting the layoffs.

Heather Cavanaugh, the external affairs director of Alaska Communications, says "we expect to separate about 30 employees, or 5 percent of our workforce, from the company."

Cavanaugh explains the company's goal is to reduce the number of staff through "voluntary separation packages, to the extent possible." In a phone call with Channel 2, Cavanaugh described that "pressures from reductions in state and federal funding" had led to the decision.

In terms of a timeline for the layoffs, Cavanaugh didn't get into specifics but says they are "working through the voluntary program now and intend to complete the process in a timely manner." "It is certainly not something we want to do, but feel it is in the best interest of having a healthy company over the long term," said Cavanaugh.

She says the company is taking "other steps to reduce the number of employees we have to let go." However, she would not go into specifics about what those steps would be.

She says the company hadn't decided which people would be let go and the layoffs were "not necessarily in one particular area of the company."

Looking to the future, Cavanaugh says it's expecting "to continue to grow as it has over the last several years. We are adjusting our costs to align with revenue, and investing in our network and areas of growth."

She also reiterated that current broadband projects were still slated to go ahead, "We are still investing in our broadband network and expanding in the Fairbanks and Kenai Borough areas and other areas over the next several years," Cavanaugh said.