Waste Management to Cut 800 White-Collar Jobs

Waste Management Inc., the nation’s largest waste hauler, said Monday that it would cut 800 white-collar jobs, or 3.3% of its workforce, as cost-saving software applications replace labor.

The move follows the Houston-based company’s layoff of 970 employees in March. Waste Management, which was embroiled in an accounting scandal five years ago, said it would take a $20-million pretax charge in the second quarter for severance and related costs. It said the cuts would result in about $20 million in 2003 pretax cost savings and $50 million in annual savings.

“The quality of our [financial] systems is such that we no longer require as many people to oversee these job functions,” Chief Financial Officer David Steiner said.

Waste Management said 600 full-time jobs, mostly mid- and senior-level managers in its finance and billing units and 200 contract workers in information technology, were affected.

The workers were no longer needed after the company began using new software in its finance and human services department in 2000, Waste Management said. The layoffs also could have been triggered by the company’s withdrawal from 25 markets in the U.S. and Canada this year, Deutsche Bank Securities analysts said in a report.

U.S. regulators Friday approved Waste Management’s move to buy assets in five states from Allied Waste Industries, the second-largest U.S. waste hauler. The layoffs were not related to the Allied acquisition, a Waste Management spokeswoman said.

The company, whose 1998 accounting scandal was among the first in a wave of U.S. corporate debacles, has seen a turnaround under Chief Executive Maurice Myers, who joined in 1999.

Waste Management shares rose 39 cents to $24.09 on the New York Stock Exchange.