A round-up of HR-related stories in today’s newspapers.
Tea maker Twinings has asked UK staff who are losing their jobs to train up the Polish workers who are replacing them, reports the Daily Mail. The move follows the announcement by the company last November it would be closing its North Shields plant with the loss of 263 jobs with production transferring to Poland by September 2011. One worker, who did not want to be named, told the Daily Mail: “They are taking our jobs yet we have to train them. There’s a lot of animosity here towards them, people are very angry.”
Thousands of London Underground workers are due to begin a 24-hour walkout in two waves, at 5pm and 9pm, in a row over plans to scrap 800 jobs in ticket offices, reports the BBC. Transport for London has warned passengers to expect disruption from late afternoon on Monday and for most of Tuesday. Meanwhile, up to 200 Jubilee and Northern line maintenance staff began a separate 24-hour strike at 7pm on Sunday. The employees at the Alstom-Metro depots voted to strike after rejecting an “insulting” sub-inflation pay offer.
Wales could be more vulnerable to spending cuts than other parts of the UK because of the high proportion of people employed in the public sector, reports the BBC. Official statistics show that 344,000 people in Wales work in the public sector, or some 25% of all employees. Steve Thomas, of the Welsh Local Government Association, said parts of Wales could be “decimated” by cuts. A spending review will be announced by the UK coalition Government next month.
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PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s largest professional services firm, paid its 820 UK partners £759,000 each last year, according to the firm’s results, out today.
PwC, which reported net revenues rose 4% to £2 billion in the year to June, said it appointed 57 new partners and recruited 1,750 new staff during the period and intended to add another 800 jobs before summer 2011, reports the Guardian. A spokeswoman said partner pay had declined from the previous year when it reached a record £777,000. However, the 2010 figure remained higher than the average £757,000 paid at the peak of the boom in 2007.
