Lucent to require workers to
be up to speed in technology
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
--HOLMDEL, N.J. -- Lucent Technologies has asked 180
employees in its communications software group to voluntarily
resign or face retraining, reassignment or possible dismissal, a
spokesman said.
Those employees have until Oct. 15 to make a decision whether to
resign, spokesman Bill Price said. They would be given a severance package of 30 weeks pay plus
additional benefits, he said.
The company is working to make sure employee skills match the jobs Lucent needs as it begins to
focus on new types of applications software and network technology, Price said. ``You want to
have the right people with the right skills in the right jobs,' he said.
If they don't accept the severance package, the employees could be retrained, reassigned
elsewhere, or be given an opportunity to apply for other jobs in the company, Price said. If the
company is not able to find a place for the employees, there might be some dismissals, the
spokesman said.
He called the process a ``normal procedure.'
``We have grown about 15,000 people in the last year because of hiring and our acquisitions,'
Price said. ``We are clearly looking at our resources and slowing down the pace a bit to see how
we are doing' with integrating the new employees into the company.'
The communications software employees, developers and managers, are among the 6,000 Lucent
workers in Holmdel. The unit has about 3,500 employees worldwide and develops software
applications for telecommunications service providers.
The company's decision came after 80 people were terminated in July because of poor
performance. |
