As you will have noticed there has been a lot of excitement/depression on figures on job redundancy. Well, it is clear that job redundancies are likely to rise during this recession but behind the headlines I hear another story.
Let’s look in a little detail at the figures:
- GSK announced redundancies yesterday. Yet, GSK have been making redundancies for months. Back last year they were slashing up to £700m employment costs by 2010. Then in June they were announcing 350 job reductions in R&D. Yesterday they were talking of closing a factory in Sussex, the same factory they said they were closing in June 2008. So, are the latest job cuts really recessionary job cuts or are they actually part of the wider programme of job reductions as they restructure?
- BT have today announced they are shedding 10,000 jobs. However, when you look closely at what is being said they already have cut 4,000 of them and the problem is being caused by a division (global services) that has seen falling revenues over a sustained period of time. Their CEO said “This is a reflection of the fact we have to become leaner, we need to do it in good times and bad.” Once again, is this the fault of the recession as the media would have us believe?
- Virgin Media – 2,000 jobs to go by 2012 as part of a restructuring. What has this to do with the recession if they intend to have this completed by 2012. I am sure this is part of a necessary Change Management scheme at a company that would have done this during good times. In fact they have said they will not start cutting jobs until the fourth quarter of next year!
I am not trying to belittle the impact of this recession, as it is likely to be deep and hard because of the policies followed by this Government. However, one cannot help but think that some of the major employers are seeing this as an opportunity to “bury bad news” and slim down their work force under the guise of a recession.
I wonder how this scenario might play out in small firms that have been looking for an excuse to get rid of an employee?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=481622c2-9fe3-4fd1-8d78-d6be4e4cca09)
