Omniplex lays off 199 Chantilly workers

Chantilly-based security firm Omniplex World Services will lay off 199 employees on July 31, following the termination of an Amazon Web Services contract.

However, an Amazon spokesperson indicated that the employees will have the chance to interview for positions with the new vendor.

Omniplex, a subsidiary of Herndon-based Constellis, notified the state of the layoffs on Monday, in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. A letter written by Constellis human resources representative Tanni Wiersema said that its contract with IAD-Chantilly is being terminated on July 31, and that the contract is the only source of work for the employees.

The majority of the positions are unarmed security officers, according to Omniplex’s letter.

Because IAD-Chantilly notified Omniplex of the contract termination on June 20, Wiersema said the company was unable to provide the 60-day layoff notice required by the WARN Act.

According to the letter, the 199 employees were working at 25316 Prediction Lane in Chantilly. While the letter does not specify what was being done at the location, datacentermap.com — an online database of data centers — says the address is an Amazon Web Services location.

The website says that Amazon Web Services does not list its data center locations publicly and that all AWS listings in its database are based on publicly available information from third parties, open databases, property registries, construction applications, permits, tenders, news coverage and its own research.

“As part of our regular course of business, we regularly evaluate our vendor partners based on a number of factors and make changes to meet our business needs,” said Amber Plunkett, Amazon spokesperson, in a statement. “As a result of that recent review, we’re changing security vendors. Employees of our current vendor will have the opportunity to interview for positions with other contracted vendors.”

Omniplex did not immediately return requests for comment.

Wiersema’s letter says that the layoffs are expected to be permanent, and employees will not have bumping rights to another position. The employees are not represented by a union.

Virginia isn’t the only location where Omniplex is laying off employees. Link NKY, a Kentucky publication, reported last week that Omniplex filed a WARN notice announcing it was laying off 73 workers in Kentucky by July 31. According to a letter written by Constellis HR representative Krystle Figueroa, the Kentucky layoffs follow a recent termination of Omniplex’s contract with AWS.

According to Omniplex’s LinkedIn page, it specializes in providing professional background investigations, intelligence support and physical security services to corporations and government agencies nationwide.