Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Norfolk Southern Corp. offered job buyouts this week to about 450 unionized clerks who work for the railroad in the Roanoke area.
The period to sign up for what the company terms a "voluntary separation program" began Monday and will run through Oct. 31, according to a letter mailed to workers from Louis F. Miller Jr., NS director of labor relations.
Workers of any age who came to work for the railroad before July 1, 1991, are eligible for the buyout.
The buyout offers a gross separation payment - that's not including taxes - of $35,000 to employees whose applications are accepted. In addition, participants who were 60 years old before Monday will get medical care coverage for themselves and their dependents until they are old enough to be eligible for Medicare.
The offer has made a lot of people happy, a Norfolk Southern employee who declined to be identified said Wednesday.
But David Steele, general chairman of the Transportation Communications Union, which represents the clerks, said the union considers the monetary offer "inadequate" because taxes will be deducted. Steele added, however, that employees close to retirement who would get medical benefits could profit from the offer.
The union has no say as to the conditions of the buyout offer, having lost a 1987 federal court challenge to a previous offer.
Steele said the effort to cut employees is basically a result of adding computer systems that have taken over work that previously required more people. An NS spokesman agreed that Steele's statement was accurate.
The separation program is the second offered by NS in less than a month. In late September, the railroad announced a systemwide incentive program to encourage nonunion workers over 55 to retire. The sign-up period for that program runs through October. Roughly 10 percent of the nonunion workers are eligible for that program, including 102 people in the Roanoke Valley.
In the program for the union clerks, the railroad has the right to turn down any applications where the vacancy would hurt the company's efficiency or not be cost-efficient, according to Miller's letter. The railroad may decided to limit the number of applications accepted or delay acceptance of some applications, he wrote.
Some clerks who accept the program could be replaced, Miller said Wednesday, depending on whether they hold what the company considers a critical job.
NS has not put any figure on how much money it hopes to save over the long run through the buyouts, Miller said. And because it doesn't know how many clerks will apply for the offer, it is not possible to predict the cost to the company and its shareholders.
NS offered a similar buyout program during the summer to about 400 union clerks in Atlanta, and only 27 accepted the offer, NS spokesman Bob Auman said. That program though, offered a lower gross separation payment - $19,000 - which after taxes amounted to about $10,000.
by CNB