Tyco lays off 700 power workers

(Telephony) In a move described as an effort to operate more efficiently, Tyco Electronics Power Systems (TEPS)—formerly Lucent Power Systems--laid off approximately 700 employees worldwide yesterday, including 400 at the company’s largest facility in Mesquite, Texas.

There are now 1,800 workers employed at the Mesquite facility. TEPS laid off about 450 employees in the U.S. and another 250 scattered throughout Europe and Asia. Although most of the cuts were in managerial and professional positions, some were in the engineering department.

“The decision is essential to ensure long-term business and financial success for TEPS,” said a TEPS spokeswoman. “The restructuring in no way reflects the quality of the workers whose contributions to the power systems business over the years are greatly appreciated.”

The layoff comes just two weeks after Tyco finalized its acquisition of Lucent Technologies top-rated power-systems unit for $2.5 billion cash. One employee who was laid off Wednesday said that the cuts were expected and were economic rather than performance-based.

“Tyco’s culture is such that they acquire and downsize--that’s their history,” said the former employee who asked to be unnamed. “If [the employees] weren’t anticipating it, they were not paying attention.”

Terminated employees will receive severance packages. The former employee said she was extremely happy with her package said she admired the manner in which Tyco made its cuts.

“It would have been cruel to sit there for a few months and let people get this false sense of security,” she said. “This way was much better.”