About 500 U. S. Steel Employees Opt for Early Retirement
02/09/2009 - About 500 United States Steel employees elect to retire under a Voluntary Early Retirement Program, including a number of the company’s Headquarter and Operations executives.
United States Steel Corp. announced that about 500 of its employees have elected to retire under a Voluntary Early Retirement Program (VERP) the company has implemented in its ongoing effort to conserve cash and lower costs in response to the difficult global economic environment.
A number of executives have elected to retire as part of the voluntary program, which the company said had been offered to nonunion workers in Operations and Headquarters who met certain age and years-of-service criteria. The executive retirements—which the company said will be announced in a series of press releases—will be effective on or about April 1, subject to an appropriate transition period.
Most of the other employees retiring as part of the program will retire on February 28, with a few exceptions to allow for a short transition period.
U. S. Steel said that this program would allow it to restructure its workforce as well as its leadership ranks to meet current business needs using a comprehensive succession plan. Although the company expects to take a first-quarter pre-tax charge of approximately $70 million related to the program, it also expects the subsequent restructuring could save approximately $50 million annually once it has been fully implemented.
U.S. Steel’s VERP is one element of a wide-ranging plan the company implemented to conserve cash and lower costs in light of the difficult global economic environment.
