TVA offers yet another round of early retirement incentives to trim staff

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which cut nearly 2,000 jobs over the past couple of years to trim its staff to an 81-year low, is looking for more staff reductions this summer.

TVA is offering another round of voluntary reduction-in-force incentives to about 2,700 employees who work in TVA’s power operations division and its power shop services units. TVA is offering a week’s pay for every year of employment to those who volunteer to retire or resign from the utility by the end of TVA’s current fiscal year in September.

“This is really aimed at the fossil group so our employees know this is coming and can take advantage of this opportunity, if they choose,” TVA President Bill Johnson said Monday. “We continue to retire some of our coal plants, and when you reduce line operations you also have to reduce staff support.”

In a similar volunteer retirement incentive plan offered a year ago, more than 900 employees, including 194 in TVA’s nuclear power program, agreed to resign or retire early. Another 1,000 job vacancies were not filled and a smaller number of workers were laid off.