167 More Jobs to Be Cut at Great Western

The second round of layoffs to hit Great Western Financial Corp. since its July merger with Washington Mutual will result in 167 more positions being eliminated at the bank’s headquarters by the end of the month, a company official has said.

Previously, 220 senior managers lost their jobs between July 1 and Aug. 31.

The corporate combination of the two financial service companies has been painfully slow for many of the bank’s employees, who complain that their lives are in limbo as they wait for Washington Mutual to decide who will stay and who will go.

Meanwhile, bank officials say the merger is a complex process that must be done on a department-by-department basis to eliminate duplicated tasks and positions.

The bank’s data-processing department took the hardest hit in the latest layoffs, with 25 jobs pruned, according to Great Western spokesman Tim McGarry.

But he would not say how many more Chatsworth jobs would be lost or when the process would be complete.

“We have no number of how many people will ultimately be laid off at the Northridge Center,” said McGarry. “The notion that a process like this can occur in one fell swoop is mistaken.”

He denied rumors that Great Western’s headquarters would close completely as “entirely false” and acknowledged the frustration of remaining workers.

“There is a large group of employees who don’t know whether they have a future with the company, and that isn’t easy. But when it comes down to it, either they will stay on or have the benefit of a very generous severance package” of six to 18 months’ pay, McGarry said.

If a concentrated mass layoff were to occur, the company would “go public with it,” he said.

“We’re trying to communicate as much as we can.”