U.S. Bancorp To Cut Work Force -- Voluntary Severance Packages Offered, But Layoffs Are Possible

U.S. Bancorp will offer early retirement and voluntary severance packages to help reduce its staff by about 1,400 in the next six months but will consider layoffs if necessary, a bank spokeswoman said today.

Spokeswoman Mary Ruble said the company, parent of U.S. Bank of Washington, could not project job losses in Washington state or at other subsidiaries. She also said the company will not know whether it must close any branches or divisions until it completes a long-term productivity study; she did not give a time frame for that.

U.S. Bank of Washington, with 157 branches, is among the state's three largest banks serving both individuals and businesses, along with Seafirst and First Interstate.

Companywide, the job cuts will total 10 percent of the bank's staff of nearly 14,000 people. In Washington, U.S. Bank employs about 3,000 people, so a 10 percent cut would equal about 300 jobs. But Ruble said cuts won't necessarily be made evenly throughout the bank's subsidiaries in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada and Canada. The company is headquartered in Portland.

The company expects to reach its 10 percent cuts through voluntary retirements and resignations, Ruble said.

Those who resign will receive a maximum of 45 weeks of severance pay at the rate of two to three weeks of pay per year of service, depending on the employee's tenure with the company.

The company would not comment on whether the cuts are related

to rumors that U.S. Bank is entertaining bids from potential acquirers.

Bank executives said they are trying to reduce overhead costs. U.S. Bank's ratio of expenses to income, a common measure of costs in the industry, is 65.7 percent, considered high. The company's goal is to reduce that to less than 63 percent by the end of the year and to 59 percent within three years.

"While we have been very successful in building U.S. Bancorp into a highly respected leader in the financial industry, the price of that growth has been a decline in our overall efficiency," Chief Executive Gerry Cameron said.

The bank will take a $100 million, one-time restructuring charge in the first quarter of 1994, reflecting the costs of the reorganization.