OLD TOWN – Laid-off employees who will be returning to work at Georgia-Pacific Corp.’s Old Town mill won’t have to pay back the assistance money they have received to date, according to a company official.

For three weeks, 300 former employees at the Georgia-Pacific mill have received Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification pay.

Last Friday, news that 140 workers will be returning to work was announced.

“The people that are coming back to work will not receive the WARN [this week],” said Kelli Manigault, manager of administrative services in Old Town for G-P. “The WARN will just go to those folks that have lost their job permanently.”

The WARN checks are issued through a federal regulation that requires employers to give employees a 60-day notice of layoffs. On April 4, G-P decided to lay off the mill workers and pay them for the 60 days. The weekly checks are equal to 44 hours of pay at the employees’ regular rate of pay.

“We’ve paid three so far to date and they will receive five more for a total of eight,” Manigault said.

Workers who received WARN checks and are returning to work will not have to reimburse the company.

“They’re [G-P] not looking to get that money back,” said Paul Randall, president of the PACE Local 80 labor union. “They’ll be able to keep those advance WARN checks and come back to work.”

One tissue machine will be restarted next week along with eight associated converting lines.

Workers who will run the converting lines will go back to work on May 12 and the rest of the 140 workers will return to G-P on May 19.

Union workers approved a severance package for the displaced workers on April 27. Under the package, employees with three or more years of experience will receive one 40-hour week of pay for every year worked. Those with less than three years will still receive a severance equal to at least two weeks worth of pay. The pay range for employees at G-P runs between $15 and $24 an hour. The average hourly pay is $18.75.

Company officials said lump-sum severance checks are on the way and should arrive by the end of the month.

“By the end of the week they are anticipating to have the LIFO [last in, first out] complete,” said Manigault. “Once the LIFO is complete, we should have the final list of those who will not be returning to the company. They’ll be paid out [severance] by [May] 30th.”

WARNS and severance checks are different when it comes to taxes, Manigault said.

“The WARN is just like a regular paycheck. They would have regular deductions taken out,” she said. “The severance is different. That is considered special pay and only taxes are taken out. We don’t take out for medical or other deductions.”

The 160 displaced workers will retain full medical insurance coverage through the end of August, which is being paid for by the company.

Meanwhile, G-P filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 4 stating the company’s plan to curtail production on its two tissue machines and 13 converting lines. The spokesperson for the SEC, John Nester, said that if G-P’s Old Town facility did not make up at least 5 percent of the G-P family of companies’ revenues, the plant would not have to refile the document. Nester added that the news the company is restarting machines would only help G-P.

“We’re about 1 percent of G-P’s total revenues,” said Old Town mill controller Rick Douglas. “We’re a very small piece.”

Douglas said that is why the agreement to restart the tissue machine and converting lines is so significant and meaningful. He said because the plant is so small, without the help of the state government the jobs would have been lost forever.

“That we were able to work with the state and bring jobs back is an incredible accomplishment,” he said.

So far G-P has not amended the 8-K filing.