Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In another NS job development, the company said it will put in place next month a permanent severance plan to cover nonunion workers whose jobs might be eliminated in the future.
NS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Goode told a group of securities analysts in New York on Wednesday that 246 people had signed up for the voluntary retirement program. The company would record the cost of the job buyouts against its fourth-quarter financial results, meaning NS doesn't know yet what that cost will be, Goode said.
But the annual savings to NS from the departure of those who already have signed up would be about $16 million, if none of their jobs are filled later, he said.
On Sept. 26, NS said it was offering voluntary retirement incentives to all nonunion employees who were 55 or older this year and already vested for retirement benefits. About 475 employees, including 102 in the Roanoke Valley, are eligible.
Paul Austin, NS vice president for personnel, said this week that the company expected about half of those eligible, or 238, to apply. Applications already have exceeded that, and Austin said NS expected a flood of applications today and Friday.
NS won't have a final count of how many have accepted the program until next Wednesday, because employees have the right to withdraw their applications through Tuesday, Austin said. The railroad said it will accept all the applications it gets.
The program, the fifth NS has offered nonunion workers since 1987, is designed to help the railroad make better use of its assets, a company spokesman said.
In a separate move, NS advised all nonunion workers by letter earlier this month that it was putting into effect a permanent severance program for them. The program, effective Nov. 2, will provide benefits to workers whose jobs might be eliminated through organizational changes, Austin said.
The program, which has been approved by the board of directors, would pay workers who lose their jobs a certain number of weeks of pay for each year they have worked with the company. If jobs are eliminated, the company first will try to place the affected workers in other jobs, but, Austin said, it may come to the point where re-assignment is not possible.
Those who are offered other jobs will not be eligible for the severance benefits if they turn them down, he said.
Austin described the severance program as a tool managers can use should the need arise and said other railroads already have such programs.
The number of workers likely to accept voluntary retirement do not include those affected by a job buyout program NS announced last week for about 450 unionized clerks who work in the Roanoke area. The signup period for that program runs through next Tuesday.
Those who accept that buyout will get a lump-sum payment of $35,000, less taxes and other deductions, to resign. Applicants older than 60 will get medical coverage for themselves and their dependents until they are old enough for Medicare. No figures were available Wednesday on how many workers have applied for that buyout so far.
by CNB