Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230074
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To encourage workers older than 55 to retire early, the company has offered to add five years to both their terms of service and their age for purposes of computing benefits under the company's retirement plan. As an additional incentive, Roanoke Gas has offered to pay workers accepting the offer $200 monthly until they reach the age to qualify for Social Security benefits, Rob Glenn, the company's vice president for strategic planning, said Wednesday.
Twenty-five of the company's 175 employees, representing a variety of job categories, qualify for the early retirement offer. The company expects that at least a dozen will accept it, Glenn said.
At the annual shareholders' meeting in January, the company said it planned to cut its expenses by $350,000 to help compensate for what at that time was a $723,000 shortfall in revenues during the budget year. The company has blamed the shortfall on the abnormally warm winter, which cut demand for heating.
The retirement offer is part of that previously announced effort, Glenn said.
He said the company did not have a specific dollar figure for what it hopes to save from the retirements. A dozen employees would equal 7 percent of the company's work force, but what portion of the company's annual payroll of $5.9 million they would represent can't be determined until individuals actually accept the offer.
Most of the employees who qualify for the offer have been with the company for many years and are "valuable, long-term employees," Glenn said.
Workers are free to decline the offer, and they should decline it if they are not prepared financially or psychologically for retirement, Glenn said. "We're not pushing anybody out the door," he said.
Employees have until April 26 to accept the retirement offer, Glenn said. Those who accept must leave the company by May 1.
The company has told its workers that it wants to avoid layoffs, Glenn said, but he acknowledged that layoffs might be possible if its cost-cutting goals aren't met through the retirement plan.
"We've got to do what we think we've got to do here to position the company well," he said.
The retirement plan is one of a series of moves Roanoke Gas has made to make the company more competitive. Other changes include computerization of many company operations, the merging of seven separate company departments into a new customer service department and a move toward automated meter reading.
The company's emphasis is on customer service, and it wants to use new technology to help improve productivity, Glenn said.
Roanoke Gas made a profit of $1.7 million, or $1.25 per share, on revenues of $58.2 million in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, an increase from $1.4 million, or $1.13 per share, on revenues of $57.7 million the previous year. For the past four years, the company has exceeded the previous year's customer growth and is on track to do the same this year, Glenn said. The company's stock, trading on the Nasdaq stock market, closed Wednesday at $15 a share, unchanged from Tuesday.
by CNB