Monday December 31, 2007

Shell plans to outsource 3600 jobs

peakoil.com -> telegraph.co.uk, royaldutchshellplc.com :

Royal Dutch Shell is to shed thousands of jobs as Europe's largest oil company joins rival BP in trying to cut costs and simplify its structure. Shell is looking to agree one of the largest ever outsourcing deals in the next couple of months, and plans to reorganise other departments, including finance operations.

The company has said previously that it wants to cut costs, but the scale of some of the proposed changes has surprised insiders and led to the leaking of information to an anti-Shell website by disillusioned staff. The biggest change will be in the information technology division, where around 3,600 staff may be affected by a plan to farm out operations to three companies. Shell employs about 108,000 people.

News that the IT plan is likely to be far bigger than first envisaged has sparked wider concern about job cuts. According to another leak, to the Dow Jones news agency, Shell's financial director Peter Voser has told staff that he wants a "leaner and meaner" department in 2008, a sign that he intends to strip out layers of management. In an interview with Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant earlier this month, Shell's chief executive, Jeroen Van der Veer, said that production costs had risen 65% in two years.

See also :

1. Shell posts record $25.4 billion profit
2. Shell 2Q2006 profit rises 36% to $6.3 billion, but production falls
3. Are Big Oil's tanks running dry?

(2007-12-31 23:25:36 SGT) [Biz] Permalink Comments [1]

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