Major Financial Company Permanently Closes Central New York Location, Layoffs Included

While Central New York has seen a lot of progress and economic development over the last few years, there are still the occasional instances in which a major company closes, relocates or makes a major change. That is the case for one major Oneida County employer.

Another factor at play here is the growing move for major companies to move to a virtual, remote workforce. That is the case for BNY Mellon and their Oriskany Business Park location on Airport Road. They made the decision to close the office spaces earlier this year and move fully remote. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente was asked about this Thursday morning on 'First News with Keeler' on WIBX. Picente said,

I'm very disappointed in the Bank of New York in terms of their decision to go remote and then to close the Oriskany facility. You know, we've invested a great deal in that park and there are a lot of employees up there. This whole issue of going remote is going to cause us problems economically in the future. It's causing us problems now. It's not good for the workforce and I'm not happy with it.

BNY Mellon is a global financial services company that oversees over $50 trillion in assets for clients and they have been in business for 240 years. They, like many other corporations, are moving to the virtual model.

Layoffs Along with Closure

Along with the closure of their offices on Airport Road, BNY Mellon's local location also laid off several employees. According to the New York State Department of Labor, the layoffs were reported on March 25th, 2024. The report submitted to the Department of labor indicated that 30 of the 600 employees lost their jobs due to "economic" reasons. Those employees were not represented by a union.

Rumors of More Layoffs to Come

Some feel with the closure of the building, more layoffs will occur. These claims are unfounded, but according to an online thread on thelayoff.com. An author of a thread posted in September 2023 wrote,

Employees of central New York will be told that their office is being sold and that they can work permanently from home. The announcement is Wednesday, Sept 27. Don’t be fooled, this is simply another step in laying off the countless wonderful people who have given so much to this bank for decades. Trust no one, especially not the two faced individual who will be coming from NYC and delivering the message this week. There are deeper plans to eliminate more than 80% of the workers in this and other smaller locations over the next 24 months. More layoffs are coming in November.

There is no official word on further layoffs other than the 30 that were declared to the NYS Department of Labor. This is difficult news for Oneida County, but hopefully the workers here locally can at least keep their jobs.

WIBX has reached out to a representative from BNY Mellon for comment and are awaiting a response.