The sale of one company to another often can be brutal on employees.
It’s not just that jobs are lost. It’s also the jarring effect on longtime employees who survive the sale but are ready to retire.
Case in point is Wood Dale-based Rockwell FirstPoint Contact which was sold to its rival, Westford, Mass.-based Concerto Software, earlier this month.
Rockwell FirstPoint, previously part of Milwaukee-based industry automation giant Rockwell Automation Inc., was formed in 1973 and employs more than 450 worldwide with most of those workers based in the Wood Dale office. It’s one of several companies in the competitive business of developing software and other solutions for company customer call centers.
Concerto also is a provider of computer software crucial to the intricate infrastructure of call centers.
And since consolidation in the industry isn’t new, and Rockwell FirstPoint was somewhat afield from Rockwell Automation’s core business, the decision to sell off FirstPoint surprised few in the industry.
Financial details of the sale weren’t disclosed, but Concerto will double its revenue to more than $250 million.
“This … reflects Rockwell Automation’s commitment to solely focus on its core business, industrial automation,” Rockwell Automation Chief Executive Keith Nosbusch said in a statement following news of the agreement.
As a result of the deal that was consummated Sept. 3, roughly 13 percent of Rockwell FirstPoint’s workforce was let go.
But the jobs weren’t the only prominent casualties.
After years of using its health-care benefit as a way to attract good workers, Rockwell Automation made almost no provision for keeping its retirement health care intact for a significant portion of its workforce already vested in its pension plan.
More to the point: If you were 55 years old on the day of the sale, you got to keep your Rockwell health-care benefit in retirement. If you were 54 or younger, you could forget it, even though the company had promised to provide it.
“Any FirstPoint Contact employees that qualified to vest their pension by virtue of their years of service in combination with their age will be eligible for the benefits of the Rockwell retirement plan,” said Concerto spokeswoman Aleassa Schambers.
“However, with the sale of FirstPoint Contact to Concerto, all employees become Concerto employees. As a result, they are entitled to Concerto’s compensation and benefits. They are no longer eligible for Rockwell’s compensation or benefits including vesting in the pension plan,” she said.
Concerto doesn’t have a pension plan, but it offers a 401(k) plan instead. It also says it doesn’t offer health care in retirement.
For many Rockwell FirstPoint workers who had counted on the benefit to retire soon, the days following Labor Day became a painful nightmare.
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They went home Friday as Rockwell FirstPoint employees and returned after the holiday to find–surprise–they now work for Concerto Software.
“As you also know, medical insurance is very expensive, and this act will take away any chance of early retirement from many of us,” one employee said.
“Companies demand your loyalty today but will break promises and moral obligations in a heartbeat,” the employee added.
Meanwhile, Concerto is putting its best face on the changes.
“We do believe that the suite of benefits, from stock options to 401(k) and health-care benefits, are in their totality comparable to those offered by Rockwell Automation,” Schambers said.
That may be–unless, of course, you’re celebrating your 55th birthday there today.
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