The United States Steel Corporation (US Steel) has announced that approximately 500 employees have elected to retire under a voluntary early retirement program offered to certain non-represented Headquarters and Operations employees in the US who met age and years-of-service criteria.
Accordingly, the retirement date for most of the employees in question will be February 28, while executive retirements will be effective on or about April 1, subject to an appropriate transition period.
In line with the early retirement program, US Steel will take a first quarter pre-tax charge of approximately $70 million. Meanwhile, the producer expects that the restructuring resulting from the program could save approximately $50 million annually once the program has been fully implemented.
The voluntary early retirement program is one element of a wide-ranging plan the company is implementing to conserve cash and lower costs in light of the difficult global economic environment.