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Mexico Government Resumes Severance Pay For Electricity Workers



MEXICO CITY -(Dow Jones)- The Mexican government said Wednesday it will resume severance payments to former workers of electricity-distribution company Luz y Fuerza del Centro, which was shut down last month.

The Labor Ministry said about 17,000 workers from the state-run LFC, as it was known, could pick up checks equal to about two years salary on average. The offer runs from Thursday to Dec. 23.

The severance payments include a bonus that is 30% lower than the bonus accepted by LFC's other 27,500 workers prior to a Nov. 14 deadline, the ministry said.

President Felipe Calderon ordered the closure of the power company, which distributed energy to Mexico City and surrounding states, on Oct. 11.

Citing LFC's massive financial losses, Calderon said the company's operations would be taken over by the larger of Mexico's two state-owned power utilities, Comision Federal de Electricidad.

On Tuesday, opponents of the shutdown failed to garner enough votes in the lower house of Congress to ask the Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of LFC's closure.

The Mexican Electricians Union is still seeking an injunction against the layoffs in a lower Mexican court.

-By Laurence Iliff, Dow Jones Newswires; (52-55) 5980-5184, laurence.iliff@ dowjones.com


  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  11-25-091903ET
  Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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