Wray and Nephew to cut staff

For the second time in a week news has come that a group of workers at a major private sector company will be losing their jobs.

This time it is Wray and Nephew Limited.

The company has announced that it will be sending home 4% of its 780 employees.

RJR News understands that the cuts which started Thursday will be completed next week.

A statement from the company said the performance of its Agriculture Division has been negatively impacted by the reduced price it receives for sugar produced, increase in prices of critical inputs such as fertilisers, fuels and molasses, as well as rising overhead costs.

Wray and Nephew says these factors require it to further review its operations.

The company says it has commenced discussions with all the relevant parties to review the organisational structure of the Division with a view to improving the productivity and cost effectiveness of its operations.

The redundancy exercise at Wray and Nephew comes just days after Caribbean Cement Company Limited said it would embark on job cuts.

The company which has been hit by a downturn in sales and increased competition from cheap cement is to send home permanent as well as casual workers.

In the meantime, the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), which represents some of the employees at Wray and Nephew says it is in the dark on aspects of the redundancy exercise.

According to UAWU Vice President, Clifton Grant, the union is still awaiting crucial information on the cuts.

“So at this point they have not given us any detail in terms of what will be cut and the employees that will be impacted as a result of that,”

“So we will be monitoring the situation so that the workers that will be affected will be properly treated in terms of their compensation and we are looking forward to meeting with the management to see what is the reason behind the cut in staff because the people who are left behind will be required to carry out the operations and the company says they want to take the production, in terms of sugar up to 50,000 tonnes,” Mr. Grant said.