Dive Brief:

• Southern California Edison (SCE) will carry out mass layoffs this summer in an attempt to make the utility’s management more efficient and move more services abroad.
• The utility will lay off 500 in-house and 400-500 contract employees this summer, according to the California Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee. Most of the layoffs will come from middle management positions at the utility’s Irwindale offices.
• An April 1 memo leaked to The Times in Sacramento said that the utility planned to shrink staff and increase outsourcing—a plan the utility later acknowledged, though it didn’t specify how many workers would lose their jobs.

Dive Insight:

The memo blamed a swollen workforce for the cuts, saying the current number of employees (14,000) was “unsustainable.” Pat Lavin, business agent for Local 47 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said that the utility had been trying to trim “redundant” middle management for the past 18 months. Improving efficiency should benefit ratepayers, according to consumer groups.