In a move to cut costs, Cinergy Corp. is offering voluntary early retirement to 280 employees, or about 3% of its workforce of about 8,770 employees. The early retirement offer is being made to certain non-union employees who will be 54 or older on June 1 with five years of service.

“This early retirement program is part of an ongoing cost leadership initiative designed to put us in the top tier of energy companies in efficiency and productivity,” said CEO James E. Rogers. “This is another step in continuing to strengthen our financial position and working to meet Wall Street’s earnings expectations.”

The program offers incentives under the company’s pension plan equal to two weeks of pay for each year of service and no early payment reduction for commencing retirement benefits prior to the employee’s normal retirement time.

The company is restricting eligibility for the early retirement program to maintain its workforce responsible for service restoration after storms, a primary concern of business and residential customers. Certain non-union employees in key operating positions will not be eligible to participate in the program, even though they would otherwise meet the age and service criteria.

Cinergy Corp. owns regulated delivery operations in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky that serve 1.5 million electric customers and about 500,000 gas customers. In addition, its Indiana regulated operations own 6,000 MW of generation and its energy merchant business owns 7,000 MW of capacity.

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