ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290115
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BASKING RIDGE, N.J.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
TELECOMMUNICATIONS GIANT is reducing job loss estimates due to growth and employee transfers.
AT&T Corp. - citing unexpected growth within parts of the company - is again reducing the number of projected job losses it originally foresaw in a restructuring a half year ago.
AT&T said it still plans to cut 40,000 jobs as it splits into three separate companies. Seventy percent or 28,000 of those jobs will be eliminated by the end of 1996.
Unlike prior job cuts, AT&T had said few employees who lost their jobs would be reassigned to new positions. AT&T announced the cuts last September.
Now, the company says a number of employees have been reassigned to new positions in its WorldNet Internet access unit and wireless phone service. More jobs are expected when AT&T enters the local telephone business.
``We were able to find them jobs in those new businesses,'' spokesman Ritch Blasi said Tuesday.
Blasi could not estimate how many people have been reassigned because a record is not kept of employees transferring to new positions. The company is distinguishing between job cuts and employees actually laid off.
About 1,800 people who were scheduled to be off the payroll by now remain because their jobs have been extended, Blasi said. By the end of the year, they will be let go, he said.
AT&T is proceeding with the job cuts, despite criticism, Blasi said.
``The bottom line is that we still feel like we are on target,'' Blasi said.
In March, AT&T said it would lay off 18,000 workers instead of the 30,000 originally projected. The company said fewer people would be fired because more workers took a buyout offer than expected.
AT&T stock rose 871/2 cents to $63.75 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB