Johannesburg-based Amplats says one in five jobs will be lost in South Africa amid plunge in profits
The platinum arm of Anglo American is to cut 3,700 jobs in South Africa as the British mining company attempts to improve performance in the troubled division.
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) said on Monday it aimed to cut jobs after a sharp drop in platinum metal prices, which had led to a collapse in profits last year.
Continue reading...Firm rejects union plan, leaving UK on course to become only major economy unable to make steel from scratch
The owners of Port Talbot steelworks have rejected a trade union plan designed to keep its blast furnaces running, putting nearly 3,000 jobs at risk and leaving the UK on course to become the only major economy unable to make steel from scratch.
In what one union said would be a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking, Port Talbot’s parent company, the Indian-owned Tata Steel, told workers’ representatives that it could no longer afford to continue production at the loss-making plant in south Wales while it completed a four-year transition plan to greener production.
Continue reading...Vacancies declining as growth falters, recruiters’ body tells Bank of England
Britain’s largest recruiters have warned the Bank of England that demand for permanent hiring among UK businesses has plunged at the second fastest rate since the pandemic, amid worsening headwinds for the UK economy.
Ahead of the central bank’s decision on interest rates on 14 December, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) trade body said lingering economic uncertainty and hesitancy to commit to new hires had weighed on activity in November.
Continue reading...Tata Steel board thought to be meeting in India and decision over blast furnaces expected about noon
Tata Steel is expected to confirm as many as 3,000 job losses at its steelworks in Port Talbot on Wednesday, in what would be a devastating blow to the south Wales economy.
The board of Tata Steel is thought to be meeting in India, where it is headquartered, to make a final decision.
Continue reading...PwC says owner plans to reopen stores under Poundland brand throwing lifeline to as many as 1,800 staff
Poundland is to acquire up to 71 Wilko sites that it intends to reopen under its own brand in a deal that could throw a lifeline to some of the about 1,800 staff who will lose their jobs at the stricken retailer.
Under the deal struck by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) with Poundland’s parent company Pepco, the sites will be acquired only after all 408 Wilko stores are shut and more than 12,000 staff made redundant.
Continue reading...Unions say widespread job losses in recent months have left UK ‘teetering on the brink of recession’
The TUC has urged the Bank of England to call a halt to interest rate increases after warning that widespread job losses in recent months have left the UK “teetering on the brink of recession”.
Employment had fallen in more than half of Britain’s 20 industrial sectors in the three months to June, the union body said as it predicted a fresh increase in the cost of borrowing would put tens of thousands more livelihoods at risk.
Continue reading...Crossbencher asks Lords to imagine bots with ‘higher productivity and lower running costs’ as example of risk to UK jobs market
The House of Lords could be replaced by bots with “deeper knowledge, higher productivity and lower running costs”, said a peer during a debate on the development of advanced artificial intelligence.
Addressing the upper chamber, Richard Denison hypothesised that AI services may soon be able to deliver his speeches in his own style and voice, “with no hesitation, repetition or deviation”.
Continue reading...Chemicals company says disruption from Ukraine war, rising costs and inflation will continue this year
The German chemicals company BASF has said it will cut 2,600 jobs as Europe’s largest economy braces for recession triggered by the energy crisis that intensified after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
The year was “dominated by the consequences of the war in Ukraine and in particular by increased raw material and energy prices”, BASF said in a statement on Friday. It paid additional energy costs of €3.2bn (£2.8bn) globally during 2022.
Continue reading...Majority of job losses are at large retailers such as Tesco and Asda, according to Centre for Retail Research
Nearly 15,000 British retail jobs have already been cut since January in a “brutal start to the year” for the high street.
A total of 14,874 retail job losses have been announced by companies so far, according to analysis from the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).
Continue reading...US carmaker blames losses on rising costs and need to switch to electric vehicle production
The British car industry faces the prospect of further steep job cuts without urgent government support for electric vehicle investment, a union leader has warned, after Ford revealed 1,300 UK redundancies in its internal combustion operations.
The US carmaker said it planned to eliminate 3,800 product development and administration jobs across Europe, citing rising costs and the need to speed up its switch from petrol and diesel engines to electric vehicles.
Continue reading...It is latest US tech company to announce sweeping job losses as global outlook weakens
Google’s parent company is to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide as it becomes the latest US tech major to cut staff.
Alphabet’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said the redundancies followed a “rigorous review” of the business. The cuts come days after Microsoft said it would cut 10,00 jobs, citing a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.
Continue reading...Sector reacts to post-pandemic shift in digital spending and gloomy economic outlook for 2023
Microsoft is cutting 10,000 jobs as it cited a post-pandemic shift in digital spending habits and weakness in the global economy.
The tech group joined a list of US peers making extensive job cuts, including Facebook owner Meta, Amazon, and business software-maker Salesforce, who have scaled back on workforce expansions stoked by a pandemic-related boom in demand for their services and products that have lost momentum.
Continue reading...Social media giant ill-equipped to deal with traffic spikes after cuts imposed by Elon Musk, according to former employee
Twitter stands a 50% chance of a major outage that could take the site offline during the World Cup, according to a recently departed employee with knowledge of how the company responds to large-scale events.
The former employee, who was granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of what was discussed, has knowledge of the workings of Twitter Command Centre, the platform’s team of troubleshooters who monitor the site for issues such as traffic spikes and data centre outages.
Continue reading...UK online car retailer will make all of its employees in France, Germany, Italy and Spain redundant
Online car retailer Cazoo has announced it will abandon its business in Europe and cut 750 jobs in the latest sign of retreat by a business that had hoped to transform its sector.
The company will make redundant all of its employees in France, Germany, Italy and Spain as it closes the operations, leaving it operating in only the UK as it tries to preserve cash.
Continue reading...The group blamed rising inflation for job losses as it vows to protect shoppers from higher prices
The Co-op Group is cutting 400 jobs at its head office in Manchester as the retailer said it faced tough trading conditions amid rising inflation.
The job cuts come after the Co-op, which employs more than 63,000 people including 4,000 at its head offices, warned in April of continuing problems with food supplies and inflation after its annual profits more than halved amid supply chain disruption and higher staff wages.
Continue reading...UK employees said they were ‘blindsided’ by the Swedish firm’s announcement
Sacked staff have criticised the buy now pay later firm Klarna for its chaotic handling of job cuts, including in the UK, and questioned the chief executive’s decision to publicise a list of fired staff who are now scrambling for work.
UK employees affected by the cuts told the Guardian they felt “blindsided” by the Swedish firm’s announcement last week, when its co-founder and boss Sebastian Siemiatkowski revealed it would be cutting more than 700 of its 7,000-plus global staff, including some hired just weeks earlier.
Continue reading...Jobs set to go at Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and at West Bromwich, but new posts to be created at Rotherham
Liberty Steel has announced plans to cut 200 jobs in the UK at plants in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands, as industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s metals group looks to shift production to Rotherham.
The company said on Friday that it would cut 160 jobs at a plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, and 45 in West Bromwich in the West Midlands as it focused production on the plant in Rotherham, also in South Yorkshire.
Continue reading...Union leaders call for employment bill and accuse ministers of failing to challenge sacking of 800 staff
Ministers have serious questions to answer on the growing scandal at P&O Ferries and must make it a catalyst to improve workers’ rights, the Trades Union Congress said on Sunday.
The TUC accused the government of sitting on its hands and failing to protect workers after P&O sacked 800 staff on Thursday with a plan to replace them with cheaper agency workers. It has emerged that ministers were informed in advance about the mass redundancies.
Continue reading...Labour and unions demand immediate action including suspending licences of parent company DP World
Unions and the Labour party have demanded immediate action over the sacking of 800 British crew by P&O Ferries, including suspending the licences of its parent company, DP World, as it emerged the government was made aware of the move the previous night.
Amid public calls for a boycott of P&O and protests at ports, unions demanded the government urge the firm to reverse its decision, and curb DP World’s involvement in planned freeports.
Continue reading...Labor and environmental groups are demanding that General Electric stop offshoring jobs and invest in renewable energy
Kevin Smith, of Salem, Virginia, worked at General Electric for about 20 years before the town’s plant was shut down at the end of 2019, and the work moved to a factory in India.
“It was a total shock because of how things had been going, with all the overtime we were working, everything just seemed great, like there was no way this was happening. All I wanted to do was wake up, that I had a nightmare, but that wasn’t the case,” said Smith, 50, who was one of about 265 GE workers who were laid off due to the closure.
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