FirstMerit to lay off 135

http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2013/10/firstmerit_terminating_135_emp.html

FLINT, MI – FirstMerit Bank has told the state it will layoff 135 of its 600-plus employees at its downtown Flint location – the formerheadquarters of Citizens Bank.

The layoff will occur within a 14-day period beginning on Thursday, Oct. 31.

Jennifer Phillips, an associate counsel and human resources representative, filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice with the Michigan Development Agency on Aug. 30, 2013, announcing the termination of the positions.

According to the filing, the layoffs will be permanent.

“The employees are not represented by a union and will have no bumping rights,” Phillips said in the notice.

The Akron, Ohio-based bank officially took control of Citizens Bank on Friday, April 12, nearly seven months to the day after the banks announced a $912 million stock-for-stock sales agreement.

In an interview with The Flint Journal the day after the sale became complete, Sandy Pierce, vice chairman of FirstMerit Corporation, and chairman and CEO of FirstMerit Michigan, said that the former Citizens Bank headquarters at 328 S. Saginaw St. would remain as “the Flint headquarters for the Flint operation.”

“The majority of the positions at Citizens are remaining in place. We can’t disclose numbers of those that are going away, and there is some workforce adjustment, but the majority of the positions remain in place,” Pierce said.

The 135 positions being terminated were not disclosed in the notice, and FirstMerit representatives could not be reached for comment.

In her April interview, Pierce said that there would be some “consolidation of back-office services, but there still will be back-room operations in the state of Michigan.”