Close to 300 power utility PPC employees have taken up the corporation’s latest voluntary exit offer and are set to depart by the end of this month, taking the tally of staff leaving the company this year through exit plans to approximately 1,000.

The latest offer was targeted at 1,700 workers turning 55 years of age by December 31 and employed at all PPC facilities around the country, not just lignite units.

Some 700 PPC employees had accepted a preceding voluntary exit plan that expired at the end of June.

Departing workers will each receive 35,000-euro packages comprising compensation of 15,000 euros plus 20,000 euros in bonus payments.

PPC plans to stage more voluntary exit rounds. A company business plan announced last December set an objective of approximately 4,500 employee departures by 2023.

This essentially means PPC’s administration will be looking to reduce its payroll by a further 2,500 employees. Besides the 1,000 voluntary exit package applicants accumulated this year, a further 1,000 employees have qualified for pension rights.

PPC’s finances are already showing signs of improvement as a result of the corporation’s lighter payroll. Payroll costs dropped to 374.2 million euros in the first half of 2020 compared 419.3 million euros in the equivalent period last year.

PPC’s workforce numbered 14,678 on June 30, down from 15,907 a year earlier.