paul65 Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 Stars under threat as UTV cuts jobs - from the Newsletter SOME of the most familiar faces on our television screens could disappear after UTV signalled a round of job cuts.UTV Life and the flagship current affairs programme Insight are set to be axed as the true scale of the cutbacks at the station become apparent. It was also revealed that household names among the presenters could be made redundant in the proposals contained in a detailed memo. These cuts will mean job losses and the memo proposes axing 13 journalists, including two presenters, as part of the restructuring.Around 15 behind-the-scenes staff are also facing redundancy. UTV Life, Insight and the late-night show Late and Live will come off air in a phased basis between now and early next year. Fingers crossed that Jamie DeLargy is ok through all of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tara747 Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 Stars under threat as UTV cuts jobs - from the NewsletterFingers crossed that Jamie DeLargy is ok through all of this. Hear hear. Do you think we should email our support to UTV? Worth a go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayoutwest Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 Hear hear. Do you think we should email our support to UTV? Worth a go... Maybe they should use the X Factor format to decide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorts Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 A Canadian telecommunications company is to set up its European headquarters in Belfast, creating 60 new jobs. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/nor...and/7672005.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayoutwest Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 (edited) A Canadian telecommunications company is to set up its European headquarters in Belfast, creating 60 new jobs.http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/nor...and/7672005.stm The investment, which has been offered support of £660,000 by Invest NI, was welcomed by the Economy Minister, Arlene Foster.BTI Systems, a global supplier of intelligent service edge solutions, will recruit the staff over the next three years. Invest NI are so generous with our taxpayer money. Why not close down Invest NI, and give the money saved back to ratepayers, for example? If the local infrastructure and workforce is so good these foreign companies will invest anyway. And when the money returned to taxpayers is spent that will generate more local jobs. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business...t-14003545.html Edit - new link Edited October 16, 2008 by wayoutwest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayoutwest Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Following the TyroneHerald's exclusive revelation that as many as 100 employees at Terex Finlay in Omagh could lose their jobs in the coming weeks, the President of the Chamber of Commerce has urged local businesses to seek wise counsel before making any decisions.Already dozens of Finlays' employees have been told that they had been laid-off while the company is now working a four-day week. http://www.nwipp-newspapers.com/UH/free/306146648782084.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talksalot81 Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Invest NI are so generous with our taxpayer money. Why not close down Invest NI, and give the money saved back to ratepayers, for example? If the local infrastructure and workforce is so good these foreign companies will invest anyway.And when the money returned to taxpayers is spent that will generate more local jobs. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business...t-14003545.html Edit - new link I am not a fan of InvestNI inspite of their having funded some of our work! £660k is not really a whole lot of money and, assuming procedures have not changed, the new company will spend half of that in staff time ensuring that the necessary progress and financial auditing is carried out! I do tend to agree with you though, I think the money may be better spent elsewhere. Unfortunately the info about local infrastructure and workforce is not a million miles from nonsense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vespasian Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 We could do with a light rail system that would link the airports and city centre. That would impress any investors - not a bloody translink citybus. Went to the transport museum last weekend, trains are great! Anyone been on the steam train running from Downpatrick? Its well worth a visit if you have kids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malthus Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7674853.stm there was a much longer report on BBC radio about this last night , as far as i can see we pay £1 million for 60 economic experts and staff to advise the government I'm sure a few of us could do just as well for £500k , anyone know where you would apply? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traktion Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 We could do with a light rail system that would link the airports and city centre. That would impress any investors - not a bloody translink citybus.Went to the transport museum last weekend, trains are great! Anyone been on the steam train running from Downpatrick? Its well worth a visit if you have kids Yup, we took the gf's nephew and niece there last Halloween. They ran a "ghost train" up and down, complete with surprise scary happenings! The kids loved it! I'm not fan of Invest NI, as I've said on these pages before. It seems if you know the right people, yet get lots of help and "free stuff" (I'm talking laptops, desks etc, to well off companies who don't need them) and if you don't, you're lucky to get any help at all. We're trying to get some assistance with another project and this time we have some "connections", so we'll see if that helps. They were useless last time and I spent more time trying to get them to respond to my queries than it took to find out the solutions myself! Tbh, all these "go for it" and Invest NI initiatives seem like the wrong way of going about it. Companies start all the time without needing to talk to someone about going for it! I've never had any format government advice and it didn't stop me. The amount of money they have spent of TV ads and other forms of advertising must be indecent too. It's this sort of thing that really winds me up - the money could be put to much better use! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malthus Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 I'm not fan of Invest NI, as I've said on these pages before. It seems if you know the right people, yet get lots of help and "free stuff" (I'm talking laptops, desks etc, to well off companies who don't need them) and if you don't, you're lucky to get any help at all. We're trying to get some assistance with another project and this time we have some "connections", so we'll see if that helps. They were useless last time and I spent more time trying to get them to respond to my queries than it took to find out the solutions myself!Tbh, all these "go for it" and Invest NI initiatives seem like the wrong way of going about it. Companies start all the time without needing to talk to someone about going for it! I've never had any format government advice and it didn't stop me. The amount of money they have spent of TV ads and other forms of advertising must be indecent too. It's this sort of thing that really winds me up - the money could be put to much better use! the main way Invest NI "creat" jobs is filling offices with civil servants pushing bits of paper . surely their main function of giving grants to multinationals could be done by a couple of people eg. Large employer " we are thinking of opening a plant in NI " Invest NI " what backhander do you want ? " Large employer " How much have you got ? " Invest NI " £ 10 squillion " Large Employer " that'll do " :angry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodzer Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 the main way Invest NI "creat" jobs is filling offices with civil servants pushing bits of paper .surely their main function of giving grants to multinationals could be done by a couple of people eg. Large employer " we are thinking of opening a plant in NI " Invest NI " what backhander do you want ? " Large employer " How much have you got ? " Invest NI " £ 10 squillion " Large Employer " that'll do " :angry: Invest NI really get my hackles up. They are so willing to hand over absolute fortunes to international companies they know will ultimately pull out, yet if they took that same money and divided it among local start ups they would end up encouraging indigenous businesses. I feel this is in part politically motivated as it allows the politicians to point to the number of jobs that were create when some large company sets up to take advantage of the financial incentives. Of course they all look the other way when said employer pulls out again several years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malthus Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Invest NI really get my hackles up. They are so willing to hand over absolute fortunes to international companies they know will ultimately pull out, yet if they took that same money and divided it among local start ups they would end up encouraging indigenous businesses. I feel this is in part politically motivated as it allows the politicians to point to the number of jobs that were create when some large company sets up to take advantage of the financial incentives. Of course they all look the other way when said employer pulls out again several years later. with the incentives offered to open up in "disadvantaged" regions , not just NI , a multinational can pull out in 5-7 years and still make a profit . As the ROI will find out soon companys based in the states are much more likely to close offices/factories outside the states than they are ones near home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeDavola Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 I think it shows a lack of ambition on Northern Ireland's part, that we have to go begging to companies in America to open up branches here. I worked for an American IT company for a year who had just set up an office in NI; I remember the bigwig coming over from America and telling us how wonderful their new offices in Belfast and Puerto Rico were. A year later, we heard out of the blue that the Puerto Rico office was no more. Make no mistake, if these companies can save a few ££ by relocating somewhere else, they will be away in a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodzer Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 I was told in the main thread that citigroup belfast was bulletproof. Frankly I do not believe that. Yes, we may be cheaper but in times of trouble, an organisation will consolidate to strengthen its core at the expense of the perimeter. Belfast will be a perimeter location and I would envisage that we would see job losses pretty early on in a widespread culling.For interest sake, has anyone noticed that the citigroup logo has been removed from their building.... As an ex-employee of Citi in Belfast I can tell you that, in my experience, the company had a very favourable view of the Belfast establishment. Although they frequently made fervent denials that they were shipping jobs from London to Belfast that certainly seemed to be the policy (i.e. roles that became vacant in London were filled with people in Belfast). You should not underestimate the difference in employee salaries between London and Belfast either - my educated guess is that most of the Belfast employees would be on no more than 50% of their London counterparts and that can be a big seller is tough times. I don't think Citi Belfast is bullet proof but they would be way down the list of where cuts can be made to make cost savings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeDavola Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 As an ex-employee of Citi in Belfast I can tell you that, in my experience, the company had a very favourable view of the Belfast establishment. Although they frequently made fervent denials that they were shipping jobs from London to Belfast that certainly seemed to be the policy (i.e. roles that became vacant in London were filled with people in Belfast). You should not underestimate the difference in employee salaries between London and Belfast either - my educated guess is that most of the Belfast employees would be on no more than 50% of their London counterparts and that can be a big seller is tough times. I don't think Citi Belfast is bullet proof but they would be way down the list of where cuts can be made to make cost savings. Yep, I know of someone who worked for Citi for a year as a grad developer, they had him working crazy hours and paid a rather poor salary, even by Belfast standards. He was over in London for a large % of the time as well, so they basically got a developer in London for Belfast wages. Not a bad deal for Citi! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayoutwest Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 A County Tyrone engineering company has said it may have to make job cuts because of a reduced number of orders in line with the economic downturn.Powerscreen, which is based in Dungannon, employs about 650 people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_irelan...est/7676252.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungFTB Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Yup, we took the gf's nephew and niece there last Halloween. They ran a "ghost train" up and down, complete with surprise scary happenings! The kids loved it! I'm not fan of Invest NI, as I've said on these pages before. It seems if you know the right people, yet get lots of help and "free stuff" (I'm talking laptops, desks etc, to well off companies who don't need them) and if you don't, you're lucky to get any help at all. We're trying to get some assistance with another project and this time we have some "connections", so we'll see if that helps. They were useless last time and I spent more time trying to get them to respond to my queries than it took to find out the solutions myself! Tbh, all these "go for it" and Invest NI initiatives seem like the wrong way of going about it. Companies start all the time without needing to talk to someone about going for it! I've never had any format government advice and it didn't stop me. The amount of money they have spent of TV ads and other forms of advertising must be indecent too. It's this sort of thing that really winds me up - the money could be put to much better use! I've done the InvestNI business coarse and I was not impressed. The people who took the coarse were nice people but none of them had any experience in business which I found incredibly frustrating. There where about 15 people in total at this 4- 5 day InvestNI coarse and we learnt a lot more from each other than we learnt from the people taking the coarse, most of us had business related questions that they could not answer. For the most part we ended up answering each others questions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungFTB Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Credit where it's due to InvestNI, their "Start A Business Guide" book is really informative and I found that a lot more helpful than the InvestNI business coarse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayoutwest Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 More then 300 jobs are to go within the next year, Northern Ireland Water has confirmed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7676844.stm There is too much now to keep up to date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulidia Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 As an ex-employee of Citi in Belfast I can tell you that, in my experience, the company had a very favourable view of the Belfast establishment. Although they frequently made fervent denials that they were shipping jobs from London to Belfast that certainly seemed to be the policy (i.e. roles that became vacant in London were filled with people in Belfast). You should not underestimate the difference in employee salaries between London and Belfast either - my educated guess is that most of the Belfast employees would be on no more than 50% of their London counterparts and that can be a big seller is tough times. I don't think Citi Belfast is bullet proof but they would be way down the list of where cuts can be made to make cost savings. Obviously not a like-for-like comparison, but Citi has recently been closing some of their large business processing / customer service departments in Manila, Philippines (English-speaking staff, university educated, paid in the region of $20 per 12 hr shift). That said, labour laws in Philippines mean that they can make decisions like that much easier than most of the western world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipbuilder Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 (edited) I know a fella starting a business who ended up giving advice to both his bank manager and others on the Invest NI course he was on. I know another fella who's employer (household name financial firm) ended up moving on the very minute their government subsidised rent was up. Another employer was making a profit on every new graduate they took on because they got £12K per graduate and were paying them £10K. I've made this point a thousand times, but the tax money handed out in benefits to the unemployed is utterly miniscule in comparison to what we hand to the corporate benefit scroungers. Of course, media brainwashing/divide and conquer ensures that this always goes unnoticed. Edited October 17, 2008 by shipbuilder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodzer Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Obviously not a like-for-like comparison, but Citi has recently been closing some of their large business processing / customer service departments in Manila, Philippines (English-speaking staff, university educated, paid in the region of $20 per 12 hr shift). That said, labour laws in Philippines mean that they can make decisions like that much easier than most of the western world. The main difference is that the Belfast office is in the same time zone as the London offices so that allows real time servicing and support of the technical needs for the London markets. Somewhere like Manila doesn't offer an option for this. Essentially Citi get to have their cake and eat it with the Belfast office and they get it (very) cheap. Sure, if things get really bad, Belfast could suffer but, as I said, it will be a long way down the list of targets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulidia Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 The main difference is that the Belfast office is in the same time zone as the London offices so that allows real time servicing and support of the technical needs for the London markets. Somewhere like Manila doesn't offer an option for this. Essentially Citi get to have their cake and eat it with the Belfast office and they get it (very) cheap. Sure, if things get really bad, Belfast could suffer but, as I said, it will be a long way down the list of targets. Manila could offer that option since Citi's services located there are not to support Asia but, rather, primarily the US market .... with the result that most of their staff work shifts ranging from 12am to 9am or 3am to 12noon !!! Business Processing / Customer Service Centre buildings in Manila are usually much busier in the twilight hours, rather than the normal daytime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratatat Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7676844.stmThere is too much now to keep up to date. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7677413.stm So they overcharged by one million and undercharged by half a million, quids in surely Hope the redundancies are not a result of a c**k up in billing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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