Warning that proposed layoffs by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. could slow response time to power outages and harm service, California power regulators voted Thursday to bar the utilities from cutting thousands of workers.
The Public Utilities Commission voted 4-1 to follow the recommendations of Administrative Law Judge John Wong, who said last month that layoffs by the utilities already had reduced service levels and advised commissioners to prohibit additional layoffs.
The order calls for the utilities to rescind previous layoffs, and bans future layoffs, of employees who are needed to staff call centers, read meters monthly, connect new customers and respond to outages in a timely fashion.
The PUC did not specify how many employees that would be, and the utilities did not speculate Thursday.
Edison has laid off 400 workers and has proposed to lay off another 1,600 employees. PG&E has laid off about 505 workers and plans to release another 675.
The utilities say the layoffs are necessary as a cost-cutting measure and that such decisions should be at their discretion. Jon Tremayne, a spokesman with PG&E, said total planned layoffs could have saved $100 million in a year. SoCal Edison did not comment on expected savings.
PG&E and SoCal Edison say they share a debt of $14 billion due to rising power costs that they haven't been able to pass along to their customers due to a rate freeze from the state's 1996 attempt at deregulation.
Thursday's order would not help them serve their customers, the utilities said.
"No one would seek these cost reductions except in a situation where they are necessary to preserve basic services," SoCal Edison said in a written statement.
"The safety and reliability of the system was never in jeopardy," Tremayne said.
But PUC Commissioner Carl Wood said levels of service and reliability are closely tied to staffing levels. Wood acknowledged the utilities' financial plight, but added that "cutting service at the expense of consumers is not the solution."
More than a dozen members of the public told the commission how another cost-cutting measure by the utilities -- the sudden suspension of long-time efforts to bury power lines underground in at least 30 communities statewide-- has left their streets dug up with their power lines still overhead.
"I think if anyone is going to be laid off it should be the administration, and leave the workers to finish the work," San Francisco resident Edith Welling told the commission.
"They're going to have to find other ways to try to find their way through the difficulties that they have because they simply can't downsize their way out of this problem," said Pat Lavin, business manager of Local 47 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.<
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