March 5, 2009
Workers occupy factory
Story link: Workers occupy factory
I am sure workers at the factory were not just distraught, but shocked that they were being made redundant with immediate effect. This is definitely not a position any one should be put in.
Even so, the workers decided to make a stand about the incident by occupying the factory, as a sign of their disgust.
Workers at a packaging firm in Dundee have refused to leave their factory after being told they were being made redundant with immediate effect.
Prisme Packaging Ltd’s 12 workers were given the news on Wednesday by director Ken Andrew.
Government slashes waiting times for unemployment
Story link: Government slashes waiting times for unemployment
Give credit where is is due, the Government are doing everything in their power to and try and sort the mess the UK economy has found itself in. Of course the problem comes when the UK actually realises that their efforts so far have been fruitless!
Government slashes waiting times for unemployment
There was some rare good news for the Government today as it published figures showing that the number of people waiting for jobless opportunities has reduced significantly since the start of the economic downturn. Waiting times for unemployment have also fallen in what the Government is describing as ‘a real turnaround in performance against a key economic measure’.
‘The queue for the dole queue is now substantially shorter than this time last year, and the position compared to three years ago has been completely transformed,’ said Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell today. ‘We accept there are still people on waiting lists, but we’re working hard to get them out of paid employment as quickly as we can. It’s only right that people should have immediate access to key public services such as unemployment benefits and the excellent professional advice provided by jobcentre staff.’
March 3, 2009
Polish workers return home
Story link: Polish workers return home
The problem is, the recent credit crunch has meant that even UK citizens are losing their jobs, with many places of employment losing contracts left right and centre.
Just thinking how much employment has changed over the last 12 months makes you wonder where we will be a year from now.
They came to Britain in search of prosperity, with higher wages on offer here than they could ever hope to earn in their homeland.
But for one group of Polish migrants, the dream has turned sour, as work has dried up in the credit crunch.
February 23, 2009
Vodaphone to slash jobs
Story link: Vodaphone to slash jobs
Although Vodaphone are posting very impressive sales and profit/loss figures as well as their predictions for the rest of 2009, they still need to scale back in case 2009 does not go their way.
They are basically preparing themselves in case their end of the market starts to dip, although that bears no help for the people losing their jobs.
Mobile phone giant Vodafone is to cut hundreds of jobs in the UK, Sky sources say.
The news comes after the group earlier this month reported a 1% dip in underlying third quarter sales, despite a weaker pound helping its full-year prospects.
February 17, 2009
MINI Madness
Story link: MINI Madness
MINI decided to lay off around 850 workers last Monday, which was something that most saw coming, but there is a twist.
MINI offered their employees a pure lack of respect, by giving them just one hours notice when turning up for work, then being asked to leave!
The economic crisis had not escaped the attention of agency workers at BMW’s Mini factory in Cowley, Oxford; they knew times were tough and their jobs were under threat.
But what they did not expect as they turned up as usual for work on Monday was to be sacked with just an hour’s notice. Several of the 850 who lost their jobs have told the BBC of their anger, confusion and despair.
February 9, 2009
Job security decreases
Story link: Job security decreases
The lack of employment currently on offer is definitely not good for people looking for jobs now. This is likely to get even worse when companies slash even more jobs, as there will be a huge demand for jobs, but definitely not enough supply.
Skilled workers will be forced to look for lower paid jobs just to keep their own finances afloat.
UK companies are shedding jobs at an ever-growing rate, says the Chartered Institute of Personnel (CIPD).
Its research suggests more than one in three UK employers are planning to cut jobs in the first three months of 2009.
February 7, 2009
Royal Mail to slash jobs
Story link: Royal Mail to slash jobs
Royal Mail have been showing increasing signs of weakness over the last few weeks, which especially worrying to the employers of the company.
Now they are suggesting that they have plans to slash around 16,000 jobs, a huge amount of people which could have even more of a negative impact on the UK economy.
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.
February 2, 2009
PM and workers row
Story link: PM and workers row
As mentioned in a previous post, the UK is a fairly open economy, with fair and equal rights meaning no one has the right to discriminate another individual under any circumstances.
The only criteria for employment should be the skill set an individual holds.
The Prime Minister was accused of “inflaming” the increasingly bitter dispute over foreign labour after he condemned the outbreak of wild-cat strikes as “indefensible”.
Paul Kenny, General Secretary of the GMB union urged the government to do more to try to resolve the row rather than “blame” British workers.
January 16, 2009
Civil servants deserve the axe
Story link: Civil servants deserve the axe
That’s the problem that is existent in not just the government, but businesses both large and small. They are all realising that they don’t actually need some workers that they thought they did and the first thing to cut back in a reccession is employment.
Civil servants deserve the axe
Ex-trade minister Lord Digby Jones says he was “amazed” to discover how many civil servants “deserved the sack”.
He told a committee of MPs he thought the civil service could “frankly… be done with half as many” people.
Employment issues
Story link: Employment issues
Some very important issues have been raised here. The government has pumped huge amounts of tax payers funds into the banks, which havn’t been passing on much of the savings that they have been receiving from the latest interest rate cuts.
The slowdown in the economy is increasing unemployment at a rapid rate, and if we are not careful, we are going to have a huge percentage of the UK population unemployed.
It’s hardly a surprise if the glory days of Gordon Brown’s political resurrection are drawing to a close. The halo of global salvation was never going to last for long. As the full impact of the economic calamity unleashed by the credit crisis hits shops, offices and factories, a daily haemorrhage of jobs, bankruptcies, repossessions and short-time working are inevitably taking their toll. If, after £500bn has been pumped into the financial system, banks have been nationalised and interest rates cut to their lowest level for 300 years, one in 10 of the workforce is still forecast to be on the dole by the end of next year, then it should only be expected that the government’s crisis honeymoon is coming to an end.
More worrying are the growing signs of government drift and lost momentum just at the point when the roll call of redundancies and closures demands more determined and radical action. None of the piecemeal announcements and initiatives since the start of the year – from Brown’s jobs summit to the employers’ subsidy for long-term unemployed and yesterday’s £10bn loan guarantee scheme for small and medium-sized businesses – begins to match the scale of the crisis or the needs of those engulfed in a deepening recession.