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Financial News

Apr 2009 Financial News

Slowdown hits; 60 jobs lost in energy

Apr 06, 2009

The downturn in the Trinidad and Tobago economy has claimed 60 jobs in the energy sector.

Local project management and engineering firm Neal and Massy Wood Group Ltd eliminated the jobs from its staff contingent of 430, the company announced on Friday.

Neal and Massy Wood Group is owned jointly by Neal and Massy Energy and Wood Group Trinidad and Tobago Ltd and was established in 2003.

It provides maintenance to clients in the upstream oil and gas industry and downstream petrochemical sector.

The company said in a statement that it took steps in its last financial quarter to manage costs in light of deteriorating global economic conditions, especially declining commodity prices and falling industrial demand.

Cost control measures included reductions in overtime, travelling and ancillary expenses as well as negotiations with suppliers to reduce incurred costs.

As local and international energy companies minimise revenue loss, the company said it extended its cost reduction to include headcount-related expenses.

"Regrettably, we confirm that 60 jobs have been eliminated across the organisation out of a total of 430," Neal and Massy Wood Group said.

"This includes eight international employees who will be repatriated."

The company said it remained committed to the development of employees and the delivery or world-class engineering in the country and would manage its expenses closely in the current environment to ensure its long-term viability.

The jobs cuts at Neal and Massy Wood Group follow human resource losses at the local operations at Spanish energy firm Repsol YPF last week.

Steel company Arcelor Mittal also "temporarily" laid off 120 workers this year and other companies on the Pt Lisas Industrial Estate have suffered losses because of plunging commodity prices.

The energy sector employs four per cent of the country's workforce but generates about 95 per cent of foreign exchange revenues for the State.


Source:
Curtis Rampersad
Trinidad Express
Monday, April 6th 2009

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161461415