Steve Haywood wrote: > On 25/01/07, Richard Fairhurst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am most concerned by this posting. The implications seem to me to be > alarming. one > I had been led to believe that as a direct result of the DEFRA cuts 180 > people had been made redundant. Now I find that this was simply not true and > that the redundancies would have happened anyhow! >
There is something here that everyone is missing. Let us say that BW have a 5 year plan that looks at how they can become more efficient in the future. Because they can anticipate how business will grow and change they see opportunities for running parts of their business with less people. In that 5 year period they would expect staff to leave for other jobs, retire etc. So they plan not to replace those jobs. Now, along comes Defra and imposes swingeing budget cuts that force BW into saving £7 million, not next year, but NOW. THey hav e already worked out how they will absorb functionality into other jobs, and people are any business most expensive asset, so they realise they must shed those jobs by redundancy rather than natural attrition. In my way of thinking the Defra cuts caused those losses. Defra may even have known that those jobs wouldn't be needed in 5 years time and, anyway, I would be surprised if BW didn't warn them that the cuts would mean redundancies. > It makes me wonder how much more of what we've been protesting about in > conjunction with BW, and with BW's support, would have happened anyhow, > regardless of DEFRA? > Like what Steve? Less maintenance, slower repairs, greater risk of catastrophic failure, less investment in moorings, fewer regeneration schemes, a serious decline in the leisure and property market confidence in the future of inalnd waterways? There's a great conspiracy theory behind many a news story but just think about it; why on earth would BW want to put their own market place at risk? Cheers Will Chapman Save Our Waterways > Steve > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > -- Will Chapman Save Our Waterways www.SaveOurWaterways.org.uk
