Royal Mail looks to shed 16,000 Post Man jobs

Royal Mail plans to cut 16,000 jobs in a move that would unleash further industrial unrest on the battered economy.

The proposed losses — amounting to almost one in ten of the company’s workforce in a drive to reduce the wage bill by £470 million — come as unions also prepare to fight the introduction of a commercial partner to the business.

David Ward, deputy leader of the Communications Workers Union, attacked what he called panic measures. “We are not opposed to modernisation but these are random savings which have not been properly worked out,” he said.

Royal Mail, which employs 170,000 people, has contacted regions around the country asking about interest in redundancy, part-time working and other cost-saving moves.

The Mirror newspaper reported that internal Royal Mail documents stated: “All teams have been given a 10 per cent cash reduction target and so we need to focus not only on where we can deliver an excellent service with fewer roles but also opportunities to spend less cash.”

Further jobs will be at risk later if recommendations by Richard Hooper, a former deputy chairman of Ofcom, are implemented. He has called for a private investor to be allowed to take a stake in the state-owned company and to close half of its 71 mail centres. Unions have warned that the move could result in up to 50,000 job losses.

The CWU is considering severing links with the Labour Party over the plans.

The fresh threat of job losses comes despite record profits, announced last month, of £255 million for the nine months to December 31. This compares with £162 million for the financial year 2007-08. However, that year was hit by some of the worst industrial action for two decades.

The group, which has been criticised in Parliament for failing to modernise quickly enough, said that all its four main operations were in profit for the first time in 20 years. However, it did not provide a breakdown of profits between Royal Mail letters, the Post Office, Parcelforce and GLS, the European parcels business.

It forecast that annual profits would be twice those of the previous year but nevertheless warned that its volumes were falling by more than 7 per cent a year and that competitors continued to gain ground. It also said that the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service was under threat and was still making a loss.

The CWU wants an independent audit of Royal Mail’s finances, accusing it of a lack of transparency. Mr Ward said: “Royal Mail is again giving us mixed messages on its financial health. These results must not come at the cost of cutbacks in services, terms and conditions for staff and post office closures.”

Source : TimesOnline
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

8,000 BFP men face layoff due to Attrition Law

Some 8,000 personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) face the risk of joining the growing list of unemployed in the country with the pending implementation of the Attrition Law that will affect not only the fire services but even the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

BFP officer-in-charge, F/Chief Supt. Rolando Bandilla, appealed to both Houses of Congress to waive the upgraded minimum qualification standards in the appointment of personnel in both the fire and jail bureaus.

Bandilla said that with the pending implementation of the Attrition Law, an estimated 8,000 BFP personnel face early separation from the service.

He explained that Republic Act 9263, otherwise known as the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Professionalization Act of 2004, upgraded the minimum qualification standards in the appointment of personnel in both agencies.

Under the law, the minimum educational qualification was set from two years to baccalaureate degree, while the minimum civil service eligibility qualification was set from first level to second or third level.

Those personnel who were already in the service prior to the enactment of the law were given five years to comply with the requirements, otherwise, they will face separation or attrition from the service.

Bandilla said he is exerting efforts to remedy the situation.

He also said that the Bureau has proposed to waive such requirements to those who entered the service prior to RA 9263.

Bandilla said with the Philippine population reaching roughly 92 million, the BFP needs additional 45,000 personnel to meet the ideal 1:28,000 fire fighter-to-population ratio.

At present, the current strength of the bureau is approximately 16,000.

"The implementation of the Attrition Law would, in effect, misplace existing BFP personnel who do not meet the education and eligibility qualification requirements stipulated in RA 9263, thereby depleting the bureau’s human resource especially fire stations that are, in fact, already in dire need of additional fire fighting personnel," Bandilla said.

But he said that there is still hope after three lawmakers expressed their support for the cause of the BFP personnel.

These lawmakers are House Speaker Prospero Nograles, Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio of the 1st District, South Cotabato; and Sen. Gregorio Honasan, chairman, Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs.

"Incidentally, two of them were instrumental in the passage of Republic Act 9514, also known as the Fire Code of 2008," Bandilla said.

He said that the three legislators had generously expressed their support to the proposal of the bureau so much so that Custodio sponsored House Bill No. 5769 that will amend RA 9263.

"The BFP is anticipating that with the intervention of our policymakers, those personnel who are candidates for attrition would be recognized for their years of invaluable services to the bureau," Bandilla concluded.

DPWH needs 495,000 workers

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is expected to hire nearly half a million workers for the government’s multi-million peso infrastructure projects nationwide.

DPWH Undersecretary Ramon Aquino said some 495,000 workers are needed for the stimulus plan of the government this year.

Aquino said that the workers will be hired mostly by the local governments where the projects will be instituted.

Fifty percent will be hired as skilled workers, 30 percent as unskilled while the remaining 20 percent will be hired by the contractors or operators.

"They will work on roads, bridges and flood control projects and SONA projects," the DPWH official said.

The DPWH will build roads, bridges, flood control systems and the so- called super region projects in Mindanao. The total cost of the projects is R60 billion.

Aquino said road rehabilitation is the biggest component of the project that includes road construction and upgrade.

The DPWH official said that if the bidding process is done this month, the infrastructure projects can start immediately.

Source : MB
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

All 632 Invista workers receive layoff notices

All 632 Invista workers at the company’s Waynesboro plant have received notice that they could be laid off Feb. 8, according to federally required documents filed by the fibers manufacturer with the state.

That figure is three times higher than the 210 layoffs announced by the company last week. Invista spokeswoman Jodie Stutzman said today that because the company has not identified specifically which workers will be laid off, it included all employees in the notice. The company has said an undisclosed number of contract workers also will be laid off as part of a plan to idle nylon production.

“While we can’t estimate the exact number of contractors, we can tell you that the combination of employees and contractors to remain at the site will still exceed 500,” Stutzman said. “We’re still not sure just what those proportions will be.”

Invista began the year with 1,100 company and contract workers at its plant on the South River, making it the city’s largest employer.

The Mundy Companies, a Houston-based industry services firm contracted by Invista, notified 137 workers Dec. 5 of layoffs, according to state records. Invista filed its notice Tuesday.

Under federal law, an employer must file a written warning notice with employees or their union representative 60 days in advance of a plant closing or mass layoff. A mass layoff is defined as the reduction of at least 33 percent of a company’s workforce.

A layoff of 210 workers calculates to 33.7 percent of Invista’s 623 company employees. The law also requires notices to be provided to state and local government.

“Everybody had to receive a warn notice, because, as I said before, staffing plans haven’t been finalized,” Stutzman said.

Invista has idled and restarted operations in the past, Stutzman said. The idling of nylon production in Waynesboro is “intended to be temporary,” she said.

Warning letters filed with the state sometimes do not list specific layoff data, said Willie Blanton, the manager of the State Dislocated Worker unit, the Virginia agency that receives layoff notices.

“We get some instances where there’s uncertainty on the absolute number and they tell us that in the letter,” Blanton said.

Some layoffs, he said, do not materialize.

“We don’t know up front,” Blanton said. “There are no definitives to us except for what they tell you in the letter.“
Companies that break federal layoff notification laws are liable for back pay and benefits for workers for the duration of the violation, up to 60 days. Employers also may face $500 fines for each day of the violation.

Notification laws took effect under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act in 1989.

The law says company notices must provide the location where a closing or mass layoff will occur, a statement as to whether it is a plant closing or a mass layoff and the expected date of first separation and the number of affected employees in each job classification.

Companies must file a warning notice with the highest-ranking locally elected official in addition to workers and the state.

Source : NewsVirginian
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]