Delphi seeks court approval of UAW buyout supplement, IUE-CWA buyout program

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, June 20 - Delphi Corp. requested court approval of a supplement to its employee buyout program with the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp., according to a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The company wants to implement a supplemental program for employees represented by the UAW and a program covering hourly employees represented by the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers-Communications Workers of America.

According to the motion, the UAW supplement provides expanded options, which will provide UAW-represented employees with additional "soft landings" as the company implements its transformation plan.

As previously reported, the current UAW special attrition program for retirement-eligible employees, which covered employees with 27 to 30 years of credited service, will expand to include a pre-retirement program for employees with 26 years of credited service and provide buyouts for UAW- represented hourly employees.

This includes $140,000 for employees with the greater of more than 10 years of seniority or credited service; $70,000 for employees with less than 10 years of seniority and pro-rated payments for non-traditional employees.

The new options will be funded by financial support from GM.

Under the IUE-CWA program, eligible employees can retire with financial incentives through early retirement or through a pre-retirement program or accept lump sum buyout payments.

Delphi said the IUE-CWA program mirrors the UAW program, together with the supplement.

Employees who are eligible to retire under the normal or early voluntary provisions of the Delphi Hourly-Rate Employees Pension Plan would be eligible for a $35,000 one-time, lump-sum incentive payment in exchange for their agreement to retire. The incentive payment would be made by GM and would be retroactive to cover eligible employees who have retired since Oct. 1, 2005.

Employees aged 50 or older with 10 or more years of credited service who are eligible to retire under the mutually satisfactory retirement provisions of the pension plan could do so.

Employees with at least 26 and less than 30 years of credited service, regardless of age, would be eligible for special voluntary placement in a pre-retirement program.

Employees electing one of these options would be permitted to either retire from Delphi or transition to GM for purposes of retirement and receive other post-retirement benefits from GM as any other GM IUE-CWA retiree.

Any employees choosing the 26 to 30 years-of-service option would be considered a Delphi employee until they retire.

A hearing is scheduled for June 29.

Delphi, a Troy, Mich.-based automotive electronics manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 8, 2005. Its Chapter 11 case number is 05-44481.

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