Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 7, 1992 TAG: 9202070144
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TRAVELERS CUTS 17 JOBS IN ROANOKE
Seventeen workers in the property and casualty claims operation of The Travelers Cos. received pink slips Thursday, victims of a restructuring that is transferring their work to Richmond."We're still going to have an office [in Roanoke] - I want to emphasize that," said Jim Kalach, a spokesman for The Travelers in Hartford, Conn. "And we will still have a [property and casualty] office there."
The announcement came just one day after Kalach said there were no plans to trim the 50-member work force in Roanoke except for an earlier buyout offer. On Monday, an anonymous caller to the newspaper had said the company was planning to lay off part of its Roanoke work force and that the news would come at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Kalach made the announcement at 11:15 a.m.
Calls to the manager of the Roanoke office were not returned.
The company told its employees in November that the bulk of its property-casualty claims handling work would be moved to a Richmond office as part of a "continuing effort to streamline and reduce costs."
At the time, Kalach said, the affected employees were offered the company's "voluntary separation option." But few accepted the buyout, forcing the company to eliminate the jobs with people still in them.
Affected employees will receive the standard Travelers severance package, Kalach said, including two weeks pay for each year of service, up to 52 weeks. Workers also will receive certain health and life insurance coverage, job counseling and the opportunity to apply for other vacancies in the company's 35,000-person work force nationwide.
Kalach said those eliminated included clerical workers, claims processors and some supervisors. The firings will be effective in 60 days and the severance packages will be distributed then.