Pacific Bell Will Close Anaheim Billing Center

ANAHEIM — Pacific Bell said Thursday that it will eventually close its bill-processing center in Anaheim as part of a consolidation that will eliminate 80 jobs in the area.

The Anaheim and Sacramento operations will be consolidated into a single center in West Sacramento, and the company expects to offer regular employees in Anaheim the option of transferring, said Dan Hammalian, Pac Bell’s director of bill processing. The existing Sacramento center employs 122 people.

Pac Bell, a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, predicted that the consolidation will be completed by the second quarter of 1997. However, the Anaheim facility will remain open for as long as 18 months after that to provide backup work, Hammalian said.

Pac Bell said it has not determined how many employees will be needed for the new center. The company has been hiring temporary workers during the past year in Anaheim in anticipation of the consolidation. Hammalian said the merger is unrelated to the recent announcement of a merger between Pacific Telesis Group and SBC Communications Inc.