THOUSAND OAKS : GTE Says Hundreds May Face Layoffs

GTE California Inc. has told hundreds of mostly blue-collar employees that they can either take incentives and quit now or risk being laid off later.

But a union official, while acknowledging the need for some job reductions, accused the company of attempting to sidestep union contracts.

“Changes in the telecommunications industry require telephone companies to do business more efficiently,” GTE spokesman Daniel Smith said Wednesday. The company, which is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, made its voluntary retirement offer last Thursday. The offer will expire Oct. 30.

Positions included in the offer include cable splicers, installers, maintainers, engineer fielders, some clerical staff and selected managers. Smith said they make up a few hundred of the company’s 14,300 employees.

Smith said employees who take advantage of the offer will receive extra pay based on the number of years they have worked for the company, along with some insurance benefits and education expenses.

He said improved technology and competitive pressures have eliminated the need for many jobs, Smith said.

He said the work of the company’s 274 engineering fielders, for example, will be largely replaced by computers within the next two years, although 100 new drafters will be hired to do some of the work done by the fielders.

Fielders inventory and map all telephone equipment down to individual telephone poles.

“We feel this is just a disguise to lower the rate of pay and shift some jobs out of the bargaining unit into management,” said Larry Beall, Southern California area director of the Communications Workers of America.

He said the lower-paid drafters will do much of the work now done by the fielders, for about $4 a hour less.

The union, which represents 12,386 GTE California employees, has filed a grievance over the plan to eliminate the fielders, Beall said.