Groton - Electric Boat has postponed a round of layoffs, which means that 96 carpenters will keep their jobs through the holidays.

The company notified the carpenters in early October that their jobs would end Dec. 4. The layoffs have been postponed to Jan. 29 because the Navy increased the scope of some of the existing overhaul and repair contracts, EB spokesman Robert Hamilton said Monday.

"We're evaluating the workload on a virtually day-to-day basis, and this right now is our best estimate for when the work runs out for these employees," Hamilton said.

Kenneth DelaCruz, president of the Metal Trades Council, called the postponement "welcome news, especially this time of year."

"Everybody was very happy about that, and hopefully more work comes in to the point where it becomes a permanent thing," said DelaCruz, whose union represents about 2,600 shipyard employees including the carpenters.

Hamilton said in October that there was not enough work to keep the same number of carpenters employed as before since submarine repair work is being diverted to the Navy shipyards. He added that additional construction work for the planned production increase of submarines in fiscal 2011 will take time to reach the Groton waterfront.

Another reason why carpenter positions are being eliminated is that the nature of the work has changed, Hamilton said.

For example, carpenters have been responsible for helping coat the outside of the submarine, the hull. But now that coating is applied earlier in the manufacturing process at the company's plant at Quonset Point, R.I., ships arrive in Groton with the hull coating intact.