HR Headlines: Apr-09 (Part-3)

Salary Hikes In 2009: India On Top In Asia-Pacific Region
According to the Salary Trends survey by London-based research company ECA International, India will witness around 10.8 per cent salary hikes this year, the highest among nations in the Asia-Pacific region. This is attributed to the shortage of talent in the country. In the Asia-Pacific region, the average salary hikes will be at 4.8 per cent in 2009, a drop of 30 per cent from last year's 6.9 per cent increases. Thus, the global economic crisis has severely impacted overall wage increments in the region. Other than India, Vietnam (10.6 per cent) and Indonesia (9 per cent) would also see high salary hikes. The survey also shows that a quarter of the companies across the world, and 40 per cent in the United States and 50 per cent in Japan, are set to freeze salaries this year. Employees in Japan, Lithuania and Ireland will see the lowest pay rises. The survey was conducted across 53 countries.
Source: 07-04-09 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Economic Crisis Affecting Employee Health: Survey
According to a study, Corporate Workforce: Chronic and Lifestyle Disease, released by the industry body Assocham, the global economic recession is taking a toll on the health of the employees in various sectors, especially the financial and IT sectors. The pressure of saving jobs is leading to diseases like spondylitis and obesity in employees. The study revealed that 54 per cent of the workforce in IT/ITeS sector was found to be afflicted with diseases such as depression, severe headache, obesity, spondylitis and hypertension. In the financial services sector, 47 per cent of employees are suffering from fatigue, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In the media sector, 51 per cent of the respondents suffered depression and high blood pressure. Also, 27 per cent of the telecom sector employees are suffering from chronic diseases. In sectors like education, FMCG and textiles, a lesser percentage of employees were found suffering from severe health problems.
Source: 07-04-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Small Companies Hiring IIM Managers
The global recession has come like a blessing in disguise for numerous small and medium firms, which can now afford to hire managers from top business schools at reasonable salaries. Graduates from the country's top business schools like the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) can now be hired at much lower salary packages than what they used to get when the world economies were booming. There has been more than 30 per cent dip in the average salary offered to fresh IIM graduates. At IIM-A, average domestic salary offered this year has come down to Rs 12.17 lakhs from previous year's Rs 18.75 lakhs.
Source: 08-04-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Textile Industry Beseeches Help To Prevent 1 mn Job Losses
The crisis-hit Indian textile industry has sought immediate government measures to help it save one million jobs and create additional 2.5 million jobs in the sector. It has asked Prime Minister Dr Manhoman Singh for a moratorium on loan repayment. It has also demanded increased tax refunds on exports, scrapping of import duty on man-made fibres and interest subsidy of four per cent on export finance. The textile sector is the largest employer after agriculture.
Source: 08-04-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Talent Crunch In The Insurance Sector
As per a report by the Rakesh Mohan Committee on Financial Sector Assessment, there is a lack of adequate specialized skilled professionals in the insurance sector. The crunch is especially felt in the areas of treasury management and actuarial and underwriting skills in non-traditional areas.
Source: 08-04-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Not All PSU Employees To Get Salary Hikes
More than 30 per cent of central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) would not be able to implement the revised pay guidelines for their employees. Loss-making PSUs will not be allowed to hike salaries of employees at all. Thus, only profit-making enterprises will be rewarded with more salary and wages. Some of the big PSUs in the red include Air India, National Textile Corporation, Eastern Coalfields, Hindustan Cables, ITI and HMT Watches. Also, those PSUs which have a large number of employees may not be able to pass pay benefits to employees as additional salary outgo may lead to over 20 per cent dip in profits. Big public firms such as Coal India (over 4.13 lakh employees) would have to mull over its accounts before offering any hikes to its employees.
Source: 07-04-09 Indian Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Retirement Benefits Of 32% Staff Of Top Firms Unfunded
According to advisory firm Watson Wyatt's annual study of employee benefits disclosures in India, 32 per cent of superannuation benefits of top 100 listed companies are unfunded. The study covered 93 companies (89 companies from the BSE 100 in addition to 4 banks) with a total Defined Benefit liability of Rs 76,350 crore (Rs 763.5 billion) and a total asset value of Rs 51,690 crore (Rs 516.9 billion). The report said that when the employee benefit liabilities of the companies are unfunded, they resort to their operating cash flows for meeting the ongoing benefit obligations and this could lead to a significant impact on a company’s cash flow if it is looking to restructure its workforce. A sector-wise analysis showed that on an average, pharmaceutical, auto and the software sector firms operate smaller benefit plans, while, those in the telecom sector and the oil and gas sector operate much larger benefit plans.
Source: 08-04-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Sallie Mae To Roll back Overseas Jobs Affecting India
Sallie Mae, the US-based company which gives education loans, is moving back around 2,000 overseas jobs, including those from India, Mexico and Philippines. These are mainly call centres, information technology and operation support positions. The company will relocate those jobs to the US even if it means an additional financial burden on the company because of higher labour expenses.
Source: 07-04-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Unilever Hired 40 Executives From Indian Arm In 2008
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has said that its 40 executives of managerial rank were hired by its parent company Unilever last year to serve globally. Currently, over 140 HUL managers, or about 10 per cent of its total managerial strength, serve Unilever’s operations worldwide. In 2004, HUL had sent ten managers from HUL to Unilever, 18 in 2005, 31 in 2006, 28 in 2007 and about 40 in 2008. The company has not divulged details of its plans for 2009.
Source: 07-04-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

French Firm Mazars To Hire 2,000 People In India
Amidst job losses and freezing recruitment, France-based global audit and advisory firm Mazars is set to recruit about 2,000 people in India in the next two years. The firm, which entered the Indian market only two years ago, has only 400 people on board currently. Worldwide, Mazars has 10,500 people on its rolls. The audit firm is looking to tap opportunities in potential cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Chennai and Chandigarh.
Source: 08-04-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

IOL Chemicals To Add 400 Staff
Ludhiana-based IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited has announced plans to add 400 more employees to its existing workforce taking the total number of employees to 1300 by this year end. The new workforce will mainly be responsible for the company's proposed expansion plans with an outlay of Rs 216 crore (Rs 2.16 billion), which would include capacity expansion for its various product lines, forward integration in the chemical and backward integration in the pharmaceutical divisions to produce raw materials for its flagship product Ibuprofen, besides increasing its cogeneration of power.
Source: 10-04-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Andhra Bank To Recruit 1,000 Personnel
India’s banking industry continues to create more jobs despite a gloomy scenario worldwide. Andhra Bank has announced plans to hire over 1,000 personnel in supervisory and clerical positions, including 100 marketing staff on contract. Last year, the bank had recruited over 900 officers and clerks. The bank is in an expansion mode and will open 110 new branches before June this year.
Source: 07-04-09 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Major Victory For Indian Migrant Professionals In The UK
After a significant High Court ruling in the UK, nearly 10,000 Indian and non-EU professionals can claim compensation for the hardship caused to them by the changes to immigration rules announced in 2006 by the Home Office. The Home Office had extended the number of years required for indefinite stay in Britain from four to five and applied the rule on even those immigrants who entered the UK under the previous law. The court has now ruled that the government has to honour its original commitments to participants under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. The ruling also paves the way for affected professionals to claim relief for the inconvenience caused.
Source: 07-04-09 Indian Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Job Losses Announced Worldwide
Even as the global economic slowdown shows no sign of easing up, companies across the world are shedding jobs to remain in business. The Walt Disney Co. has slashed 1,900 positions at its U.S. theme parks, representing about 11 per cent of salaried employees in the division. US-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has laid off 480 employees and contractors across the country. Mining giant Rio Tinto will axe about 700 jobs in its Australian mines and scale back production.
Source: 05-04-09 www.sify.com, news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

800 Jobs To Be Created By Tesco
Tesco is creating over 800 new jobs at its first purpose-built distribution centre in Middlesbrough in the UK. The £130m Teesport facility to open in August is set to replace Tesco's current non-food distribution centre in Coventry. These jobs are a part of the 10,000 positions the company announced it was creating in January.
Source: 06-04-09 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Average CEO Pay In US Dropped By 6.8% In 2008
2008 has been a hard year for chief executives in the US with many CEOs getting the boot. Now, a study by executive compensation research firm Equilar has said that the average pay of a chief executive at a US American company fell by 6.8 per cent in 2008, as financial meltdown forced steep cuts in bonuses. In 2008, the average cash bonus payouts for chief executives dropped by 20.6 per cent. The study includes data for 208 S&P 500 CEOs at companies whose financial years ended between June 2008 and January 2009 and whose chief executives held office for at least two fiscals. S&P 500 CEOs took home an average salary package of $8,446,935 last year. In 2007, the median salary stood at $9,061,057. In 2008, these CEOs received a cash bonus of USD 1,473,520, a 20.6 per cent reduction as compared to the same period a year ago. The median cash bonus paid was $1,855,989 in 2007.
Source: 08-04-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Royal Bank Of Scotland To Slash 9,000 Jobs
In a bid to cut costs, British banking major Royal Bank of Scotland has announced plans to eliminate as many as 9,000 jobs globally over the next two years, including 4,500 positions in the UK. The move would mainly affect the bank's group manufacturing roles, which consists mainly of back office operations. This could lead to job losses in India as well.
Source: 07-04-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

STAR India Hires Mr Sanjay Gupta as COO
STAR India has hired Bharti Airtel’s Mr Sanjay Gupta as the Chief Operating Officer. Mr Gupta would be based in Mumbai. The incumbent COO of the company Mr Jagdish Kumar has been moved to the south to head the recently created joint venture between STAR India and the Jupiter Group, STAR Jupiter.
Source: 07-04-09 www.exchange4media.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Sonata SAP Business Hires New Head
Sonata Software has appointed Mr Ramachandra Subramanyam as head of its SAP business. Mr. Subramanyam will be responsible for SAP enabled business transformation programmes for Sonata’s customers.
Source: 07-04-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New Head At Standard Chartered Private Bank
Standard Chartered Bank has appointed Ms Soumya Rajan as Head, Private Bank, India. Ms. Soumya was earlier Chief Operating Officer of the Private Bank. The Standard Chartered Private Bank works with clients and their families to understand financial goals and fundamental beliefs and values.
Source: 08-04-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Reliance Consumer Finance Gets A New CEO
ADAG-owned Reliance Consumer Finance has elevated its Deputy CEO Mr K. V. Srinivasan as the new chief executive officer of the company. In his new role, Mr. Srinivasan would oversee both consumer and home finance businesses of the company.
Source: 09-04-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New COO At Huawei Tech India
Huawei Technologies India Pvt Ltd ha appointed Mr Justin Chen as the new chief operating officer (COO). In his role as the COO of Huawei’s India R&D centre, Mr Justin Chen would be responsible to deliver the company’s vision and develop its long-term investment and strategic plan for India.
Source: 10-04-09 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

GoAir CEO Quits
The Wadia-group promoted private carrier GoAir's chief executive officer (CEO) Mr Edgardo Badiali has put in his papers. He was hired as GoAir CEO in January 2008, shifting from Italian low-cost carrier My Air. Last month Go Air’s chief financial officer Mr G P Gupta quit the airline to join rival low-cost carrier SpiceJet.
Source: 06-04-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

CEO At ING Vysya Bank Steps Down
Mr Vaughn Richtor, CEO of ING Vysya Bank has stepped down from his position as his three-year tenure and a two-month extension period came to an end. Current chief financial officer Mr Jayant Mehrota will be the interim in-charge till a new CEO is appointed.
Source: 06-04-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New Leader At Deloitte Financial Advisory
Deloitte has appointed Mr Avinash Gupta as the national leader for financial advisory practice comprising corporate finance, forensic, dispute, transaction and re-organisation services. Prior to this, Mr Gupta has served HSBC Investment Bank for over ten years.
Source: 09-04-09 www.thehindu.com


Compiled by Amresh Anjan