Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William Hunt who wrote (10616)	10/24/1999 8:22:00 PM
From: Bindusagar Reddy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21876

Bill, here is the DJ report on LU voluntary employee buy outs. People are making big deal about. Every company has to do deal with inefficiency if they have to compete, otherwise entire company may go down. They are doing it in a fair manner. "Life time employment" simply does not work. One of the big reasons fro Japan's failure and Europe's mediocre performance is the concept of life time employement and entitlement programs. It is good to see the active role in trimming inefficiencies. It is better to do this on continuous basis rather than announcing 20,000 lay-offs one fine morning. That is a sign of GREAT management. Mr. MCGinn is probably busy with all these issues. BR MURRAY HILL, N.J. (AP)--Employees at Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) say the world's biggest telephone equipment maker is eliminating jobs through buyout offers that target veteran workers identified as "lowest performers." Employees at the company, based here, contacted The Star-Ledger of Newark about the latest round of buyouts, claiming older workers are being pushed out to please Wall Street _ and that they are being unfairly labeled as substandard. "I'm no superstar, but I always did my job," said ebbie Turton, 48, a 21-year veteran of Lucent and AT&T Corp. (T) - Lucent's predecessor before a September 1996 spinoff. "If you go for a new job, people will say, 'You're a low performer. We don't want you." The software tester from Piscataway, N.J., who uses a wheelchair to get around because she contracted polio as an infant, is among the workers who took a severance package this month. "It's going to be hard to find a job," Turton told the newspaper. "Not everyone wants somebody who is in a wheelchair, because then they have to make accommodations for you." Lucent officials say the company must cut jobs to remain competitive after acquiring some 30,000 new employees when it snapped up about 30 companies in the last three years. Late Friday, Lucent made its most recent buyout offer to about 750 workers who run company computer systems. Lucent spokesman Bill Price told the newspaper for Sunday's editions that the offer, primarily to employees in New Jersey and Denver, was made because recently installed computer systems and software require less maintenance than the systems they replaced. He said Lucent expects to cut about 100 jobs in the voluntary buyout, which was offered to 750 people. "Obviously you don't want to lose the whole organization," Price said. "The expectation is that a small percentage would take the package." Lucent denies employee claims that morale is down because workers fear losing their jobs. "I heard one of the directors say they want younger people," Turton said. Kathleen Fitzgerald, Lucent's senior vice president of public and investor relations, said there is no company-wide plan to reduce benefits or the number of older workers at Lucent, which employs 21,000 people in New Jersey alone and more than 150,000 people worldwide. "We deal respectfully and fairly with our employees," she told the newspaper.