Coastal Communications recently annouced that is has reduced approximately 40 employees from its Hinesville workforce, a Sept. 18 release said.

Last Tuesday was also the date that employees were first notified of the changes, Coastal President Durand Standard said.

“Generally, the positions will be from our Customer Care Call Center, our Collections, some of our Customer Support, and then we have some operational units that will be consolidated,” Standard said, noting the jobs won’t be affected until April 2008.

The reductions are due to job duplications, created by the integration of Coastal’s operations with CenturyTel, Inc. after CenturyTel purchased Coastal, Standard said. All affected employees will be eligible to apply for vacant positions with CenturyTel, and will also be eligible for severance, outplacement and job search assistance, the release said.

“Eliminating duplicate positions is a difficult but necessary part of integrating companies,” Standard said in the release. “We are very proud of the excellent job our employees have done over the years and we are committed to maintaining the high level of service our customers have come to expect from us.”

Coastal Communications will continue to have a substantial workforce in the Hinesville area, as all service technicians and other local employees will remain with the company. Coastal will also continue to have local offices in Hinesville, Richmond Hill and Fort Stewart to provide customers in-person service, the release said.