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This article was published 6/4/2017 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Hydro will begin offering buyouts to its workers Monday as a first step to cutting 900 jobs in a move to save close to $100 million annually.

Those jobs represent 15 per cent of Hydro’s workforce.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Hydro aims to cut 900 jobs.

President and CEO Kelvin Shepherd said in a news release Thursday that the "voluntary departure" will be offered to staff beginning Monday and continue for the next six weeks.

Hydro will not disclose any buyout details before outlining the package to employees Monday.

"The voluntary departure program is the preferred first step to achieving our target workforce reduction," Shepherd said in a statement. "It’s fair to our employees, providing a financial incentive to those who choose to voluntarily leave the company."

Shepherd also said Manitoba Hydro expects to file its rate application with the public utilities board by early May — which Hydro has warned could be well into the double digits.

The coming 900 job cuts wereannounced in the fall, but management changes delayed implementation of the voluntary departures package until now, Hydro public affairs officer Bruce Owen said in an interview Thursday.

Owen said no decisions on further steps, such as possible layoffs, will take place until at least July.

"It would be after June," Owen said. "We’ll find out what the takeout is and then conduct a further review. It may takes months to work the process, through."

Hydro has to determine how many people in every job category take up the offer, Owen said. "We have the right to deny an application if the person is deemed integral to options."

Crown Services Minister Ron Schuler told reporters Thursday afternoon that he has not and will not discuss possible layoffs with Hydro’s board. The former NDP government’s getting involved politically is "how we got into this mess. We’ve tasked (the board) to do what is best for ratepayers."

Hydro has estimated that the buyouts will carry a one-time cost of $57 million, Owen said.

However, Hydro has revised its initial estimate that cutting 900 jobs would chop $65 million from the annual payroll. "We expect to save upwards of $98 million annually," Owen said.

Employees have not been told what they’ll be offered to leave, Mike Velie, business manager of Local 2034 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Thursday.

"We’ve been asked for input; we’ve asked that our members be treated fairly," he added.

"We’re the face of Manitoba Hydro," Velie said of the 2,700 frontline workers he represents. "We transmit, we distribute, we repair."

IBEW argues that it already needs an additional 300 people in ‘field jobs’ to maintain current services for Manitobans, Velie said.

Velie said that Manitoba Hydro grew substantially in the past few years, adding about 1,000 staff, but only 100 were IBEW members working in the field.

"We’re hopeful they get the numbers they’re seeking," Velie said, suggesting it would be very disruptive to lay off workers, whose collective bargaining agreements would allow some to bump more junior employees in some jobs, switch positions, or have the right to be retrained.

"Maybe they (Hydro) will suck it up if they only get 800 instead of 900" taking the buyout, Velie said.

Hydro has already slashed its senior management ranks.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca