Hong Kong long-time utility company is laying off workers despite having yearly profits
AGNES LAM and FELIX CHAN
CLP Power laid off 314 employees yesterday, just
three days after dismissing speculation about mass
sackings as "unfounded rumours".
The company told the workers, mostly low-level staff,
their jobs had gone yesterday afternoon.
Communication resources manager Cecilia Chiu Siu-mui
said: "About 314 employees from all departments and
ranks will be affected, and their last working day is April
14."
Employees affected will be compensated under the
Provident and Retirement Fund or Long Service
Retirement Scheme.
They are entitled to receive one month's salary per year
of service to a maximum of 18 months.
A worker fired yesterday condemned the company as
"hypocritical and cunning" and said workers in the
computer department had to leave yesterday
accompanied by security guards.
"How is the scheme going to help cut costs when they
have so many overwhelmingly well-paid managers?" she
said.
She said speculation was rife that there would be two
more waves of sackings in June and September to bring
the total number of redundancies to 1,000.
But CLP Power public affairs manager Fred Yeung
Yiu-mo dismissed the speculation, saying: "So far, at this
moment, I believe the company has no such plan."
When asked why he described the departure scheme as
"unfounded rumours" three days ago, Mr Yeung said:
"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding I caused."
Chairman of the CLP Power China Employee Union
Wong Chung-kun said: "The company is enjoying
profits and has a monopoly in the provision of
electricity.
"How can it be so irresponsible to its employees?", he
asked.
The Confederation of Trade Unions said the sackings
were an irresponsible act by the power utility group
after it reported net profits of $10.11 billion for the 15
months to December 31.
"Since Hong Kong's economy has not fully resuscitated,
CLP Power with a sizeable profit should bear the duty
of safeguarding the workers' rice bowls and not try to
push up unemployment further," chairman Lau
Chin-shek said.
"Moreover, with the present CLP Power workforce
less than 4,000, which is a far cry from its peak of more
than 6,000 five years ago, there is no reason for the
company to carry out such radical redundancy actions."
The Democratic Party urged CLP Power to rethink the
sackings, saying internal retraining and redeployment
would be a better solution.
"We are worried such acts will lead to a domino effect
on other employers and may spark off another wave of
pay and job cuts," spokesman and legislator Andrew
Cheng Kar-foo said.
WHAT THE FIRM SAID ON TUESDAY
Rumours of mass sackings here are totally unfounded
and I have no report of the impending sackings you are
asking about. The company has no such practice
involving supervisors being asked to submit a list of their
staff for sackings.
CLP Power's public affairs manager, Fred Yeung
WHAT IT SAID YESTERDAY
This departure scheme is for those whose positions will
no longer be required as a result of the streamlining of
work processes, outsourcing of non-core services,
[and] implementation of the management information
system.
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