TVA plans to cut work force to stay competitive

<p>The Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing employees for possible layoffs, but TVA Chairman Glenn McCullough refused Friday to say how many might lose their jobs.</p><p>A memo from TVA President Ike Zeringue sent to department heads Monday said program reviews now under way at the nations largest public utility should be finished by Feb. 23.</p><p>If surplus staffing situations exist, we will ask for volunteers before conducting an involuntary RIF, Zeringue wrote, referring to a mandatory reduction in force or layoffs.</p><p>The memo says March 15 is the deadline for employees to volunteer for a RIF and that termination for employees approved for voluntary RIFs would happen by May 28.</p><p>We are reviewing every program throughout the corporation, and where surplus people are identified, we would first ask for resignations, McCullough told The Associated Press Friday in Oak Ridge, before addressing the East Tennessee Economic Council.</p><p>TVA has 13,245 employees _ down from about 34,000 in the 1980s. The agency has been trimming its work force incrementally for years. TVAs last major incentive-loaded layoff, in 1994, eliminated 2,600 employees.</p><p>McCullough said he had no layoff estimates. I cant speculate because I have not seen the results of the program reviews, he said.</p><p>TVA recently adopted a strategic plan it said would help prepare it for eventual industry deregulation, with a target of trimming its $25 billion to $26 billion debt by $3 billion to $5 billion in a decade.</p><p>The Knoxville-based agency supplies electricity to 8.3 million consumers in Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x2866a68)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/2/176661