SoCal Edison to lay off hundreds in effort to streamline management

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-edison-layoffs-20140415,0,5330268.story



Southern California Edison announced plans to permanently retire its San Onofre Nucelar Generating Station last summer. On top of layoffs there, it plans to cut hundreds of workers at its Irwindale complex.

SoCal Edison to lay off hundreds in effort to streamline management
By Marc Lifsher
April 15, 2014, 5:00 a.m.

SACRAMENTO — Southern California Edison Co. plans to lay off hundreds of employees as part of a management streamlining and outsourcing of some functions such as information technology.

The number of workers affected by the cuts will be "in the high hundreds," said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), chairman of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. "It's pretty disappointing.... (The cuts) are not going to help" the California economy.

Padilla was briefed by his committee consultants, who said they were told that the utility expected to cut 500 in-house employees and another 400 to 500 contract workers beginning this summer. Most of the layoffs would be at Edison's sprawling Irwindale office complex.

The utility acknowledged in a statement its plans for cuts this summer — including greater use of outside vendors — but did not offer an estimate of the number of workers affected.