plans to lay off 80 unionized workers by the end of this month.
The Jackson-based utility plans to send letters Tuesday to the affected workers in the natural gas operations business. Due to union "bumping" rules, those employees may be able to stay with the company because of their seniority, Consumers spokesman Jeff Holyfield said.
Bumping among employees can continue down the line, so it is unknown where the employees who eventually will be laid off are stationed.
"This is going to take place around the state," Holyfield said.
Holyfield said the layoffs are necessary because of the state's poor economy and an anticipated decline in workload.
"We have more employees than we have work to do," he said. "We needed to take this step to address it."
There are about 3,100 construction, operations and maintenance employees across the state.
In November, the utility offered buyouts to almost all of its employees. Union employees had until January to decide to take the offer, and the utility was hoping about 250 would do so.
Holyfield said only 118 took the offer.
On the salaried side there was no target number, but 270 applied for severance and 179 were accepted.
The separation agreement included a pay package tied to years of service and a continuation of the company-paid portion of the health-care plan for a certain period of time.
Three years ago, the company made a similar offer to more than 5,000 salaried, nonunion employees. Workers were given eight days to decide if they wanted to remain with the company.
In the end, about 5 percent of those eligible applied for the voluntary buyout. Of the 263 who applied, the company approved 189.
The utility employs more than 8,000 statewide, including about 2,400 in Jackson County.