DWP BUYOUT SWEETENED.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

In an effort to win union approval, the Los Angeles City Council on Friday voted to add $7 million to a $350 million severance package designed to entice up to 2,000 Department of Water and Power workers to retire early.

The vote, taken behind closed doors, also extends the time during which members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers would be eligible to take the buyout from three years to four years, eight months.

The enhancements to the buyout deal the council agreed to a week ago are an effort to get at least one of three unions to sign off. Under the proposal, retiring DWP workers would receive at least an average of $161,000 each.

``We think this is important as a way to get the IBEW to agree to terms,'' Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said.

But Councilman Joel Wachs, who along with Councilman Nate Holden opposes the deal, said he believes the settlement is too high.

``They say, `It's just $7 million,' but that's a lot of money to me,'' Wachs said.

IBEW officials did not return telephone calls.

The council action came as the Engineers and Architects Association, the union with the most members affected by the proposed buyout, filed an unfair-labor action against the DWP.

The EAA said the utility has refused to bargain over the issue of whether the utility needs to get rid of so many workers.

DWP General Manager David Freeman has said he needs to cut the payroll from 9,000 to 7,000 workers in order to pay off $4 billion of its debt and prepare the agency for deregulation of the electric industry.

EAA Executive Director Bob Duncan questioned the need for the number of layoffs being proposed.

``The department's refusal to bargain over the layoffs makes me suspicious of how they determined the need for the layoffs in the first place,'' Duncan said. ``They know there are other plans to reduce the department's debt, protect customers and not resort to these draconian cuts. Somebody needs to slow down the general manager.''

Under the terms of the complicated proposal, a total of $275 million in incentives would be offered for workers to retire early by giving them credit to get full retirement benefits of 63 percent of their salary. It also allows certain workers to buy back military pension credits with the DWP. That money would be covered by the DWP's retirement fund.

The remaining money would be used as incentives to get workers not close to retirement to leave by offering two weeks' pay for each year they worked at the agency. This would be a minimum of $25,000 and a maximum of $50,000. Present contracts do not have any such severance provisions.

Also, $5 million is to be used as bonuses for specialized classes of workers needed to stay on at the DWP.

The council has said the closed-door meetings are needed as part of the negotiations with the unions. It will vote in public once it has an agreement with the unions.