Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270048
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The program announced Tuesday will be available to about 475 employees across the NS system, 102 of them in the Roanoke Valley. The offer will be in effect from Thursday through Oct. 27.
Roanoke has the second-largest concentration of workers eligible for the buyout, after 126 in Atlanta. There are 59 eligible workers in Norfolk, where the company has its headquarters. The remainder are scattered across the railroad, which operates in 20 states and the province of Ontario. The railroad said that all applications for the program will be accepted.
Bob Auman, a railroad spokesman in Roanoke, said informational packets were mailed to employees Tuesday.
The program, according to Paul Austin, NS vice president for personnel, is intended to ``help facilitate certain organizational plans and objectives.'' It is to ``enhance our efforts at better asset utilization, strengthen our business initiatives and intensify our customer focus,'' Austin said in a letter to eligible employees.
``We are constantly evaluating how we're doing business in today's marketplace,'' NS spokesman Bob Fort said in a telephone interview from Norfolk. Anytime NS sees an opportunity that will mutually benefit employees and the company, the railroad will take it, he said.
The program is not a result of desperately looking for ways to cut costs, Fort said. Rather, it is intended to make better use of NS assets and to keep the railroad ``well engineered.''
The voluntary retirement program is the fifth NS has offered to nonunion workers since 1987.
Programs were offered to employees across the system in 1987 and 1993, and individual programs were offered to employees in the accounting and operations departments in 1990. In 1987, 999 of 1,249 eligible employees accepted such an offer; in 1990, 17 of 20 in accounting and 213 of 251 in operations opted for retirement; and in 1993, 381 of 608 departed.
Highlights of the new offer include:
Immediate retirement with no reduction in benefits because of retirement before age 65 or for failure to meet minimum service requirements.
Credit for certain service while employees were represented by a union.
Payment of railroad retirement supplement benefits.
Surviving spouse benefits.
Waiver of certain required contributions for post-retirement medical coverage.
Payment equivalent for 1996 vacation entitlement.
Relocation assistance.
Fort said NS would not be able to provide any information about the impact of the program on the company's earnings until it determines how many employees accept retirement.
by CNB