THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 20, 1995 TAG: 9512200383
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Virginia Power said it will provide at least one month's severance pay to workers who will be terminated next month at its coal-fired and hydroelectric power plants.
The Richmond-based utility said it reached an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers to provide the severance pay, which will go to permanently laid-off employees at eight plants in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
Virginia Power has said it will terminate 165 hourly workers at five of the plants, including 29 at its Chesapeake Energy Center. Cutbacks are planned at the three other plants, including the Yorktown Power Station, but won't be announced until early January.
The terminations are part of a companywide restructuring aimed at reducing Virginia Power's operating costs.
The utility has so far announced it will eliminate more than 850 of its 10,500 jobs. It says the reductions are needed to help it compete as lawmakers and regulators dismantle monopolies long enjoyed by power companies.
Most of the employees hit by the cutbacks have been salaried. Those salaried workers, including about two dozen at the Chesapeake plant, are covered by a severance package that provides up to 18 months' pay.
The company proposed the same package for union-represented hourly workers. But the IBEW rejected the proposal because it would also require the union to surrender use of a seniority system to determine who is terminated.
Virginia Power said it wanted to decide which hourly employees to keep and which to let go based on its evaluation of their job skills and on performance reviews.
The utility said it plans to have completed the projected job reductions in the eight power plants by Feb. 8 and that workers will receive severance pay through March 8.
Senior union leaders were not available Tuesday for comment.
KEYWORDS: LAYOFF SEVERANCE by CNB