Author: Site Staff

State Street Corp., parent of State Street Global Advisors, announced Wednesday, December 3, that it would cut 6 percent of its worldwide workforce—between 1,600 and 1,800 positions—by March 31.

About two-thirds of the jobs to be cut will be in North America, according to a news release from State Street. A spokeswoman confirmed cuts would be made across the organization but declined to say how many would be let go at the money management arm.

The reductions “will largely be achieved by consolidating middle and senior management ranks,” the news release says.

The staff reduction is part of a cost-cutting plan in response to global market turmoil, according to the release.

Filed by Douglas Appell of Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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The United Auto Workers has agreed to suspend the Jobs Bank program and allow Detroit’s Big 3 automakers to delay making payments to a retiree health care trust in 2010 to help the automakers through their cash crisis, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said Wednesday, December 3.

Gettelfinger spoke after summoning the presidents and chairmen from Detroit’s Big 3 locals for an emergency meeting in Detroit on Wednesday.

The union is willing to make modifications to the 2007 contracts reached with General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler, said Jeff Everett, a local Chrysler president who attended the meeting. He said concessions on wages and benefits for active workers weren’t discussed.

“Times are tough, and we are going to do what we have to do,” said Everett, president of UAW Local 1166 in Kokomo, Indiana.

Under the Jobs Bank program, laid-off factory workers can receive as much as 95 percent of their regular pay.

Gettelfinger and the automakers’ CEOs are scheduled to appear before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday and the House Financial Services Committee on Friday. The automakers are seeking as much as $34 billion in loans and lines of credit.

Filed by David Barkholz of Automotive News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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General Motors Corp. was blocked by State Street Bank & Trust from allowing participants in the automaker’s two 401(k) plans to purchase GM common stock shares because of GM’s financial difficulties, said Julie Gibson, GM spokeswoman.

State Street, administrator and fiduciary for the $11.7 billion salaried employees 401(k) plan and $8.6 billion GM hourly employees 401(k) plan, refused to approve registration by GM of shares for sale to participants, Gibson said.

She said GM approached State Street before registering the shares.

Detroit-based GM sought to register additional shares of its stock for purchase by its 401(k) participants after the company suspended purchases because no more registered shares were available, Gibson said.

“It was their [State Street’s] decision it would not be appropriate to register additional shares,” Gibson said.

GM informed participants of the decision. She didn’t know if any GM employees objected to the State Street action.

The 401(k) participants owned $1.4 billion in GM stock. A breakout of the amount of GM stock held by each of the plans wasn’t available.

Gibson declined to provide data; the asset amounts came from GM filings with the SEC and are as of December 31.

Carolyn Cichon, State Street media representative, said, “State Street acts as the investment manager for the GM company stock fund. In its role as investment manager, State Street is required to follow the ERISA framework and focus exclusively on the best interests of the participants. We continue to evaluate the situation on an ongoing basis.”

(For more, read “UAW Chief: Detroit Three Quiet on Helping Retiree Funds” and “GM Doesn’t Foresee Required Pension Contributions.”)

Filed by Barry B. Burr of Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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The new chief of human resources at Citigroup, in one of his first official duties since ascending to the position last week, announced in an internal memo Monday, December 1, that the firm would eliminate certain forms of severance pay for U.S. workers.

The memo, sent to U.S. employees by HR head Paul McKinnon, who replaced 30-year company veteran John Donnelly last week, said Citigroup would no longer provide additional weeks of base pay beyond its standard severance formula to employees who have 10 or more years of service.

Citigroup has been among the hardest hit by the financial meltdown this year. The company announced in November that it would lay off 52,000 employees and said it wants to reduce employee compensation by 25 percent, though Citigroup spokeswoman Shannon Bell wouldn’t say whether the new guidelines were part of that effort.

Citigroup has posted more than $20 billion in net losses in the past year.

Last week, Citi received assurance from the federal government that it would guarantee protection against $306 billion worth of bad assets, in addition to $20 billion in bailout money from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. The latest bailout came with not-yet-defined conditions on executive compensation.

It was unclear whether these efforts were related to meeting the government’s conditions.

Bell declined to comment and instead referred to McKinnon’s memo to employees: “As you know, we’ve continued to review our policies and practices to ensure that they support our overall business objectives and remain competitive with industry standards,” McKinnon wrote. “As a result, a decision has been made to amend the Citigroup Separation Pay Plan (SPP) for U.S. employees.”

The new policy will apply to any employee laid off on or after January 15, 2009.

McKinnon also wrote, “The basic severance benefit available to eligible employees—two weeks of base pay for each full 12 months of service to a maximum of 52 weeks of base pay—remains unchanged.”

—Jeremy Smerd

Workforce Management’s online news feed is now available via Twitter.

 

During flu season, it’s inevitable: Some employees are going to get sick. But employers can take steps to help people on their staffs avoid the dreaded flu. One step is vaccination, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that December 8-14 is National Influenza Vaccination Week. But the CDC makes other suggestions, such as staying home from work when sick so as not to spread illness. Hand-washing also prevents people from becoming infected with an influenza virus. The federal agency offers a number of fliers and posters that can be distributed or posted at work sites. Click here to see what’s available.

Looking to hire IT staff?TechSoup has some suggestions for how to hire the right person because, it reminds: “The consequences of a bad tech hire can haunt you for years, long after the person in question has left your organization.” The Web site then lists some questions to consider in the process of hiring technicians, among them, “Will they understand your end users?” and “Are they enthusiastic about technology?” TechSoup then suggests key steps to take and alternatives to hiring a full-time techie. Although TechSoup is aimed at nonprofits, hiring managers elsewhere may find the information worth considering.

2007 was the safest year since 1992 for employees in terms of work-related fatalities, a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. A preliminary count of 5,488 work-related deaths is the lowest since 2002, when there were 5,534 work-related deaths, according to the BLS. (The final report is due in April 2009.) The high was 6,632 in 1994. States such as Texas, Montana, Maine and Florida showed increases in 2007 over 2006, and California, Arizona, Georgia and New York, among others, boasted decreases. But employers anywhere may be able to use the facts and figures, which are broken down by other categories such as gender and industry sector, to reiterate safety points to their workforces.

You’ve got information that needs to get out to your organization. You have a few ideas on how to make your program compelling for your audience, but you think you need more. TechSoup offers suggestions that managers may find helpful with the humorously titled and written “How to Design a Bad Presentation.” Among the tips: “Jam as much information into the slides as possible. If you don’t have a lot of experience creating presentations, you may assume that the more information you include, the more your audience will learn and retain. This is often not the case.”

Troops—whether in the military or the business world—learn from and are inspired by their leaders. If you’re seeking suggestions on how you can inspire your employees to do their best to improve company performance, BusinessLink.gov might be a site worth visiting. Its information on leading and motivating your staff covers such subjects as “What motivates employees” and “Lead your staff through change,” which may be especially useful in this time of economic uncertainty.

Commuters keeping an eye on gas prices, or those who want to help cut air pollution or simply want to get some exercise, are ditching their cars and biking to work. What can employers do to aid the effort? A compliance note from Sibson Consulting has information that could help guide businesses in providing the benefit. The compliance note indicates that President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which contained a provision for a tax-preferred transit benefit for bicyclists. It’s effective January 1.