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Archives for February 2009
Irish Civil servants go on strike
19 February 2009 | Ireland | 2 Responses
Late last night it was announced that up to 13,000 Irish civil servants will be going on strike next week. They are doing so because of the Government’s newly enforced pension levy. So it’s planned that next Thursday (Thursday 26th Feb 2009) that the public sector administrative and clerical workers will go on strike. Most government departments will be effected, including the extremely overworked social welfare offices, tax and passport offices.
The general consensus with the public servants is that this is totally unacceptable. From the 13, 000 workers, over 11,000 returned ballots (almost 85%) and 83% of these (about 9,000) vote in favour of strike action. The Department of Finance already stated on Monday that they will not be in a position to pay workers for this striking day.
The levy increase was set to increase from 3% to 9.6% in an effort to save some of the exchequer losses in the region of €2 billion. There is also the deferral of the national wages increase, which is the equivalent to a 12% wages cut.
So does striking make things better ? Is the Irish economy already under fire enough, without more problems ? The average wages of a clerical officer grade is €30,000 , which is higher than then national average wage, and there is research stating that our civil servants wages are some of the top in the world.
By the way you can find Public Sector jobs on http://www.publicjobs.ie/, there does seem to be some openings.
Some good jobs news for once
11 February 2009 | internet | 2 Responses
A news bulletin today mentions that there are 50 new jobs being created by the online business directory WhatsWhat (www.whatswhat.ie). WhatsWhat are similar to the goldenpages (even looks a little like it), in that they list companies contact details, phone/address etc. They are unique in the fact that they offer website design and SEO consultancy to these business listings. Currently they have over 60,000 companies listed, and claim to have 4,000 visitors per day. WhatsWhat was founded in 2002 by Barbara Gordon, a Wicklow based business woman, who wanted to get Irish companies online. Their directory offers 3 levels of listing, from €200 /year- €100 /year to free listings.
More via the Irish Times
Update 15/02/2009 : Via Damien apparently these jobs are more commission based jobs, as apposed to full time positions.
Glanbia reduce workforce further
10 February 2009 | glanbia | No Responses
Another week, and another round of layoffs from Glanbia (www.glanbia.ie). Last week they announced 50 jobs were to go at their City West facility, and now today they announce a further 210 job cuts. The company who had €2.2 billion worth of revenue in 2007 now say they need to introduce this cost savings plan. The job losses are part of Glanbia’s €16 million restructuring plan for 2009. The company has said that they hope the 210 jobs will come voluntary from their staff of just inder 5,000.
Glanbia owns such brands as Avemmore, Yoplait, Kilmeaden, Premier Milk and CMP Dairies.
Glanbia Ireland
Glanbia have failed in one of the most important rules in laying off workforce, namely, “cut once, cut deep”. The probelm with continiously making more and more of your workforce redundant is that it demotivates staff more, than if one single cut was announced.
Their share price dropped to €2.61 today after this news.
Companies saving in the Recession
10 February 2009 | esb | No Responses
News came today that ESB (www.esb.ie) want to introduce a 2 year pay freeze for it’s 8,000 staff members. They have approached the trade unions, and leading by example with management wage cuts. CEO Padraig McManus is taking a 10% cut while other senior mangers are taking a 5% pay cut, and this is also along with having the 2 year pay freeze.
It’s good to see that the managers are leading the way and giving the staff a good example. Granted these guys probably get paid significantly more than the average ESB worker. But to the workers it shows that they are at least making some effort.
For the average ESB worker things start to get a little more as they have just recieved a 3.5% wage increase as part of the national wages deal. And the further 2.5% is due in June. But if the pay freeze comes into effect then this might come into question. The ESB union released a statement saying that they still expect the National Wags Agreements to be honoured and keeping the ESB inline with what the Social Partnership agreed on last year.
One thing to remember is that because of the recession, many companies might start to introduce some cost saving measures, under the guise of the down turn in the economic situation. And of course people are now starting to realise how lucky they are to have jobs, compare with those guys at DELL, Kostal and other companies around the country. Having a job that pays less over 2 years is better than having no job at all. Right now the employment market upperhand lies with the employers, and I’m sure that they will use it to their full advantage while it lasts.
Big spending recruitment agencies
9 February 2009 | Ireland | No Responses
Last Sunday the 43rd Superbowl took place between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. It is one of the most watched TV programs in the world (after the Olympics), with an estimated 1/3 of all Americans tuning in to see the big game. So with 98 million US adults watching, it’s a great way to target some advertising at them. In fact the US Superbowl is well known for it’s ads, some organisations create specially theme ads for the event. And these advertising spots down come cheap. For a 30 second spot you will need to pay USD$3M , which is up 10% from last year’s rate. So running at $100,000 per second, it is the most expensive TV ads out there.
For your money you do get to show off your product to a significant portion of the US adult population. Monster and Careerbuilder both bough spots. In fact Careerbuilder opted for a double spot, a 1 minute advert costing over $5M ! Recruitment agencies are seeing the recession as an oppertunity to get even more people’s CVs in their system.
Monster.com
CareerBuilder.com