BANGOR, Maine — Forty-three employees in Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems’ information systems department are being offered early retirement in an effort to avoid a $3 million shortfall in the department’s budget, an EMHS official confirmed Monday.
The early retirement packages are being made available to employees who are age 55 and older and have worked for the system for 10 or more years, Chief Communications Officer Suzanne Spruce said. Most of the those employees are full time, she said.
“This is completely voluntary,” Spruce said.
She said eligible employees, who were notified on Monday, have 45 days to decide if they will take the offer.
The early retirement packages will include one week of pay for each year of service as well as any accrued time off employees have earned and health care benefits for those who currently are eligible.
The information systems department employs more than 300 people systemwide, Spruce said.
She said the department also will employ other cost-cutting measures to reach its $3 million budget cut goal but declined to release the total department budget figures.
The current budget measures affecting information systems are part of a long-term effort to overhaul operations that has been going on since at least 2014, according to published reports.