Thomson Reuters offers buyouts to 130 employees
by Erin Johnson
Thisweek Newspapers
Thomson Reuters will offer buyouts to 130 employees at its Eagan and Rochester, N.Y. locations in an effort to minimize or avoid layoffs.
Scott Augustin, director of communications for Thomson Reuters, said the company’s goal is to focus on attrition and voluntary buyouts rather than job cuts.
The buyouts are aimed at specific positions in Thomson’s legal editorial operations department, which creates U.S. legal content delivered in Westlaw, print, and CD-Rom formats.
“The program is primarily for our publishing specialist and quality assurance employees, most of whom work in our Eagan and Rochester, N.Y., offices,” Augustin said.
The buyouts are the result of a business decision by Thomson Reuters to complete the ramp-up of its global content centers in Hyderabad, India and Manila, Philippines, he said.
“As part of this initiative, we need to reduce employee numbers in specific roles in our U.S. legal editorial operations organization,” he said.
The buyouts are currently underway and will go through the end of 2011, he said.
“We continue to assess and align our organization, and will make adjustments as needed to ensure that we have the right people in the right places,” Augustin said.
Last December the company laid off 120 workers from its Eagan campus due to a decline in its legal business. The majority of positions cut were also in the company’s legal editorial department, in roles ranging from administration, production and publishing to management.
The layoffs were part of 240 job cuts the company made nationwide.
Erin Johnson is at eagan.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.
