HR Headlines: Feb-09 (Part-2)

GDP Growth Gets A Fillip Through The Pay Commission
The Rs 28,505 crore bonanza doled out by government for more than five million central government by way of higher wages has ensured that community, social and personal services grew at a robust 9.3 per cent, way above last year’s 6.8 per cent growth. The pay arrears of government employees would contribute a whopping 75 per cent of the sub-group’s growth in 2008-09. However, growth in six of the remaining sub-sectors is expected to drop sharply. Manufacturing growth is expected to fall to 4.1 per cent from 8.2 per cent last year, agriculture 2.6 per cent against nearly 5 per cent last year.
Source: 12-02-09 www.hindustantimes.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

1,650 Temporary Workers Hired At Tata Motors
In a positive indication for the Indian automobile industry, the country’s largest commercial vehicles maker, Tata Motors, is hiring over 1,650 workers in temporary positions for its Jamshedpur plant. Last year, over 700 temporary employees were disengaged from the same plant as production fell badly. The hiring comes on the heels of company recording healthy commercial vehicles sales in January, although lower by 43 per cent as compared to the same month last year.
Source: 08-02-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

PSU Bank Employees To Get Pension Benefit
There is good news for employees of PSU banks as they will now be entitled to a comprehensive pension benefit. Currently, 2.5 lakh employees covered under the provident fund do not enjoy pension benefits. The new move to cover them under the pension benefit could mean an additional cost of Rs 6,000 crore for state-owned banks.
Source: 10-02-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

South Indian Bank To Hire 3,000 People
As part of its aggressive expansion plans, Thrissur-based South Indian Bank will recruit as many as 3,000 employees over the next two years for its 40 new branches. The bank already has over 500 branches, mostly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Source: 12-02-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

TCS To Go For Real-Time Talent Management
Tata Consultancy Services has changed its hiring strategy to focus on just-in-time hiring. Now, the company will hire in the last three months of graduation rather than a year before. The company is devising ways to reduce the two-month training period by half. TCS has already frozen lateral hiring and plans to hire only on a need to need basis.
Source: 13-02-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

March Calendar Of FORE School Of Management (FSM), New Delhi
FORE School of Management (FSM), New Delhi has announced the following Management Development Programmes to be conducted at its campus during March, 2009:

1. Advanced Financial Management - March 16-17, 2009
2. Effective Performance Management System - March 18-20, 2009
3. Determining Cost of quality - March 23-25, 2009

For registration / additional information, please contact : MDP Office, Fore School of Management, B-18, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi – 110016, Phone (011) 26856301 (Direct), 41242424 (Extn. 498); Fax: (011) 26520509, 26964229; E-mail: mdp@fsm.ac.in (Website : www.fsm.ac.in).

For complete details of individual programmes click at the relevant programme title .
For complete MDP Calendar (2008-2009) click here
For Response Sheet for MDP Calendar 2008-2009 click here.
For nomination form click here.

Source: 12-02-09 Fore School of Management Compiled by Amresh Anjan

DMA Seminar On Retaining Talent In Turbulent Economic Situation
Delhi Management Association (DMA), is organising a national seminar on Retaining Talent In Turbulent Economic Situation - Remedies & Solutions on 6th March ‘09 at India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi with a view to support organisational initiatives to beat the economic slowdown and continue winning.

Mr Hari Nair is Programme Director & Vice President – Human Resources at Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd. The faculty will include eminent experts from the cross section of various industries. The Seminar would provide the delegates an opportunity for networking with the best HR Professionals.

For further details/registration/sponsorship please contact: Rajan Pandhi, Deputy Director, DMA, Mobile 9810877615, 24629555 (D), 24649552 Email: info@dmadelhi.org or dmadelhi@sify.com Website : www.dmadelhi.org
Source: 13-02-09 DMA Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Indian Pilots Eye Gulf-Based Airlines
With more and more Indian airlines trimming their pilot headcount, many Indian pilots are eyeing jobs in West Asia as Gulf-based airlines are seen as financially more sound. Also, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Air Arabia and other carriers are in an expansion mode. On the other hand, in India, airlines are resorting to various cost-cutting measures such as phasing out expensive foreign pilots, cutting salaries etc.
Source: 09-02-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Jet To Phase Out Expat Pilots
As part of cost cutting measures, Jet Airway Board has decided to phase out excess foreign pilot over the next few months. Of the 1,300 pilots in the company, 250 are expats. The decision comes on the back of their Indian counterparts demanding axing of foreign pilots as the latter draw a 40% higher salary than Indian pilots. Three months ago, the company had asked the pilots to accept salary cuts, which created outrage among the pilots. Also, the company has decided to freeze hiring and no vacancies created due to attrition would be filled.
Source: 10-02-09 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

United Airlines’ Indian Call Centre Closed
North American airline United Airlines is closing its call centre in India and moving 165 jobs to US call centres in Chicago and Honolulu, Hawaii. These jobs will be handled by workers who now handle reservations. United Airlines transferred these jobs to India three years ago as part of a trend in the US to move such functions to low-cost countries.
Source: 12-02-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

More International Job Losses
The tally of job losses across the globe is scaling new heights with each passing week. Hit by dropping sales and the surging Yen, Japanese automobile major Nissan is slashing 20,000 jobs or 8.5% of its workforce. General Motors Corp is mulling to fire up to 5,000 salaried employees. Swiss financial services major UBS will cut about 2,000 jobs this year. Sir Richard Branson-controlled Virgin Atlantic is planning to cut up to 600 jobs while Ryanair is cutting 200 jobs at its Dublin base.
Source: 10-02-09 Financial Express, Business Standard, Financial Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan

No Perks And Bonus For UK Bankers
British Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown has warned the chief executive officers and bankers in Britain that the time of big bonuses and perks is over. He has particularly told the bankers that there would be no rewards for failure and only those who showed long term sustainable success would deserve rewards. He has told board members of UK's leading banks who have received state bailout they would not receive cash bonuses this year, nor would banks pay or receive dividends.
Source: 09-02-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

700 Merrill Employees Had a Windfall Before Sellout
In a stunning revelation, Mr Andrew M. Cuomo has disclosed how Merrill Lynch distributed its 2008 bonus pool, thereby creating millionaires out of a select group of 700 employees. Merrill moved up the bonus payments to December, just before the merger, instead of the usual time in January. As per the disclosure, the top four bonus recipients received a total of $121 million. Also, 20 people were paid more than $8 million and 53 people were paid more than $5 million.
Source: 13-02-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

No Bonus, $1 Salary For Citi CEO
Amid criticism over use of billions of dollars in government aid, Citigroup’s Indian American CEO Mr Vikram Pandit has decided to accept a token salary of $1 and no bonus till the bank retains to profitability. US lawmakers are grilling top executives from eight of America’s largest financial institutions for not lending despite collectively receiving $165 billion in capital.
Source: 12-02-09 www.ndtv.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Toyota Offers Buyouts To US Workers
Toyota Motor Corp has offered buyouts to nearly 18,000 U.S. workers. Also, it has decided to cut pay for executives and blue-collar workers in North America. Reeling under the global credit crunch that has sent auto sales sliding, Toyota has announced that it would shut down production for more days in April at plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico and would cut executive pay and bonuses.
Source: 13-02-09 www.reuters.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

200 Warner Jobs To Be Outsourced To India
The US entertainment giant Warner Bros has plans to outsource nearly 200 jobs to India. Though no formal announcements have been made so far, it is estimated that around 800 positions worldwide will be affected as the company prepares for layoffs, elimination of open positions and outsourcing. While about 300 employees will be sacked, other 300 positions will be outsourced, out of which 200 would go to India and Poland.
Source: 08-02-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

US Payrolls Will Soon Have More Women Than Men
The axe of recession has fallen on men as the lay offs have happened more in men-dominated sectors such as manufacturing and construction rather than women-dominated sectors such as education and health care. This has led to widespread speculation that women may soon outnumber men on US payrolls. Figures suggest that a full 82 per cent of the job losses have befallen men. The other side of the coin is that more and more women are now playing breadwinners in the family as men lose jobs.
Source: 07-02-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

$77 Mn Fine On Blackberry Bosses
A hefty fine of $77 million has befallen Blackberry co-CEOs and top executives in a case of stock option backdating. The honchos at Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) were not directly involved in the fraud but were accused of showing negligence in letting option backdating take place.
Source: 07-02-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mphasis Appoints New Chairman
Mphasis has appointed Mr Andy Mattes as its new chairman replacing Mr Michael Coomer. Currently, Mr Mattes is senior vice president for applications services at EDS, an HP company.
Source: 10-02-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Nexus India Appoints Mr Pradeep Guha
Mr Pradeep Guha, former CEO of Zee Network, has joined venture capital firm Nexus India Capital as a Venture Advisor.
Source: 10-02-09 www.vccircle.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New COO & EVP At Genpact
India’s BPO giant Genpact has appointed Mr N V Tiger Tyagarajan as chief operating officer, promoting him from the position of Executive VP and Head of Sales, marketing and Business Development and the Americas Operations. Also, Mr Bob Pryor has joined Genpact to fill the previous position of Mr Tyagarajan.
Source: 13-02-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Dalip Sehgal Appointed As Godrej MD
Godrej Consumer Products has appointed Mr Dalip Sehgal as the new managing director of the company. Also, Mr Adi Godrej would now be the company’s chairman instead of chairman and managing director.
Source: 07-02-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New CEO At Swiss Re
Swiss Re has appointed Mr Stefan Lippe as chief executive of the company replacing Mr Jacques Aigrain. Mr Lippe is a reinsurance expert with an experience of 25 years with the group. His appointment is inline with the company’s lower risk ‘back-to-basics’ approach.
Source: 13-02-09 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

SBICAP Appoints New MD
Mr Satish Joshi has been appointed as managing director of SBICAP Securities. A 25-year veteran at State Bank of India, he possesses wide experience in credit policy and procedure cell.
Source: 11-02-09 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

HSBC Gets New Head Of Equities
HSBC Asset Management (India) has appointed Mr Jitendra Sriram as head of equities. In his new responsibility, he will oversee day-to-day operations and fund management of the equity funds for HSBC Mutual Fund in India.
Source: 11-02-09 Financial Express

Compiled by Amresh Anjan