When it comes to Edison most of us associate the name with power, though few of us realize just how big the company that bears the name of the famous inventor is in reality. So before we talk about the loss of jobs lets being by taking a look at one of the small segments of that company. The Southern California Edison is one of those companies and here is a look at how they have chosen to describe themselves, “We are committed to providing reliable electric service throughout central, coastal, and southern California — just as we have for more than 125 years.  Reaching Out. Our business is designed for the rich diversity of Southern California. Our customer service team provides assistance in seven languages with translation services available in 150+ more. When storms and emergencies affect the region’s service, we reach out with public information in Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.”

The company, which is a major employer in the area, has decided to cut back on workers as part of a retooling effort. The company describes its rational for putting more than 700 people out of their jobs in the following release, “As one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, Southern California Edison (SCE) and the management of its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) are committed to top performance and providing safe, efficient and affordable energy to nearly 4.9 million customer accounts. As a result of exhaustive benchmarking and analysis of industry best practices, SCE has concluded that SONGS’ staffing and costs are significantly higher than other similar dual unit, non-fleet nuclear power plants. Indicators also show there are opportunities to reduce operating and maintenance costs by improving plant processes while fully maintaining all safety commitments. As a result, SCE announced today its intent to downsize the SONGS’ organization to 1,500 – a reduction of approximately 730 employees – beginning fourth quarter of 2012.”

The only good news in this situation is that the job cuts will qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines and that means the workers will be given some advance notice before they are taken off of the payroll. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

For the time being the company has not said which positions will be cut, or what kind of severance benefits, if any, they plan to give to the workers who are being laid off.