Eletrobras, LatAm's largest electric company, to shed 3,000 staff

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's national electricity company, Eletrobras, announced on Monday that it had begun a voluntary termination program aiming to see a reduction of 3,000 staff and savings of 890 million reais (270 million U.S. dollars) a year.

In a statement, Eletrobras said the measure would be directed at employees with over 10 years working in the firm, as well as its subsidiaries.

Eletrobras currently has around 24,500 employees but already reduced its payroll by 2,100 positions in the last two years.

This announcement comes at a time when the Brazilian government is seeking to privatize Eletrobras. The state currently holds 51 percent of stock in the company and 40.99 percent of its total capital.

Brasilia hopes that privatizing the firm could generate savings of up to 12 billion reais (3.635 billion U.S. dollars).

Latin America's largest electricity firm, Eletrobras has 13 subsidiaries, 233 hydroelectric plants, and a power generating capacity of 46,586 megawatts, or 31 percent of Brazil's total capacity. Enditem