If Congress doesn't pass a fiscal 2011 budget by the middle of October, 132 employees at General Dynamics Robotics Systems in Westminster may lose their jobs.

The company, a subsidiary of General Dynamics Land Systems of Michigan, has notified the state of the pending layoffs, said spokesman Peter Keating.

The workers are among 350 employees at the company's Westminster facility and were working on an autonomous navigation system for the Army to allow vehicles to be driven robotically, Keating said.

Employees who face being laid off will be paid for the next 60 days, he said, but "there is no more money in the defense budget for the project they were working on."

"I'm hopeful Congress will pass its budget on time," Keating said. "We told the state that if the new budget is not passed by mid-October, we will have to let those employees go."

The layoffs would not be the first this year.

"Eighty people between March and May were laid off because of the general health of the economy," he said. "The whole economy will have to get healthy before we can rehire those employees."

The company has worked on other projects, including as a subcontractor for Northrop Grumman to create mail-sorting systems for the Postal Service. However, "we don't expect to bid on any more contracts related to that," Keating said.

More jobs in Salisbury

Meanwhile, the Knowland Group of McLean, Va., which provides business development systems for the hospitality industry, plans to add about 200 jobs at its Salisbury location during the next year and a half, said spokeswoman Hannah Karaskiewicz.

The new jobs primarily will be in professional business development services, Karaskiewicz said. That includes cold-callers, who contact event planners and obtain information to submit to the company's clients.

"We are also hiring in our customer service and sales staff as we continue to grow," she said.

chuntemann@gazette.net