ST. LOUIS, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) today announced that the company is offering a voluntary separation election offer to approximately 350 of the total 9,870 employees of Ameren Corporation and its subsidiary companies.

Eligible employees are members of the company's full-time management ranks, who will be age 58 or over as of Dec. 31, 2009. Eligible employees are receiving information about the offer this week. The program excludes senior executive officers and approximately 60 other employees, based upon operational needs. This offer follows recent announcements of reductions of approximately 140 positions in Ameren Energy Resources Company, LLC, (AER), the company's merchant generation business segment.

"This program and the reductions to AER staff are in response to the current economic conditions," says Thomas R. Voss, Ameren president and chief executive officer. "To achieve additional organizational efficiencies, a targeted involuntary separation process will follow this offer. We must build a more streamlined organization that can compete effectively in an environment where costs are rising, demand for energy has softened and prices for our merchant generation power have declined.

"Clearly, we will not make staffing cuts that affect our ability to continue to provide high quality, reliable service. However, this initiative along with the elimination of certain capital programs and the reduction of many other expenses are part of our continued efforts to maintain our financial strength and flexibility and to deliver solid, long-term returns for our shareholders, while offering low-priced energy and reliable service to our customers."

Eligible employees will have until Oct. 22 to decide whether to accept the voluntary separation election offer. Those who accept are expected to leave the company by Nov. 1, 2009.

Eligible employees are being offered Ameren's standard management severance program of a lump sum payment of two weeks' pay for each full year of service with a minimum of 13 weeks and maximum of 52 weeks of pay. In addition, they will receive outplacement/financial planning assistance and other benefits. The expectation is that most of the positions vacated by employees who choose this offer will not be backfilled.

With assets of more than $23 billion, Ameren owns a diverse mix of electric generating plants strategically located in its Midwest market with a capacity of more than 16,400 megawatts. Ameren, through its subsidiaries, serves 2.4 million electric customers and nearly one million natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.

SOURCE Ameren Corporation

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