More jobs to be lost as CIBC First Caribbean to downsize
That company is Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) First Caribbean and, according to a letter to its employees across the Caribbean dated September 30, 2013 that leaked from the company, no talks have commenced with unions and governments that they are moving to send home employees.
The letter, seen by Virgin Islands News Online, was signed by Chief Executive Officer Rik Parkhill.
Several calls to the bank on Tortola yesterday afternoon, October 1, 2013 to secure a comment from local manager Peter Edmunds, proved futile.
Workers were told that in order to deal with the challenges allegedly generated by the global recession which began in 2008, they have undertaken an 18-24 month initiative to improve overall efficiency by simplifying organisational structure and consolidating operations. “This includes the reduction of the workforce,” the letter stated.
It further states, “We intend to consult with governments, regulators and our union partners before executing this programme… Our next step is to consult with your individual unions and other relevant stakeholders.”
It is anticipated that this process will take approximately three weeks after which the company promised to share the details of the programme that will be offered.
CIBC First Caribbean, in its 'highly confidential letter’, did not give any indication as to how many persons are like to be sent home.
The letter was sent to the company’s branches in the Virgin Islands and sixteen (16) other countries/territories in the Caribbean Region.
According to the letter, the company intends to start its downsizing by offering a voluntary early retirement programme for eligible employees and a voluntary separation programme for those employees who may wish to leave the company but are not eligible for early retirement.
“Application received for consideration will be assessed to ensure our ability to deliver continually improving customer service,” stated the letter.
CIBC First Caribbean will also move to decisions on redundant positions only to the extent necessary and will provide to support those employees leaving the CIBC First Caribbean, the letter claimed.
Employees uneasy
The stomachs of most of the workers at ‘First Caribbean’ as it is commonly called, are beginning to ‘churn’ as they said the VI government has a track record of putting up an unacceptable level of representation for its people.
“I don’t know why they are so weak but they (Government) have a “yes” approach when it comes to representing people who losing their jobs with no hope of where their next meal will come from,” alleged one employee.
The same employee, who said he is already forced into a mode of “slowing down and hard brakes”, said his greatest concerns are for persons who have children attending college and universities overseas and even those with children in early stages of their academic pursuits.
“What will some of these women do? Quite a number of them are single parents and they really committed to their children! Since we got that letter yesterday (Monday) everyone was uneasy. We can’t work like before, everyone on edge,” said the employee.
Insult to injury
“We do not feel that we are breaching confidentiality by talking about this issue because their letter to us states ‘confidential’ but we have to bring in ‘shared’ Confidentiality. Our families would be affected, our communities would be affected, our territory would be affected and they got the gall to say it’s a confidential matter,” said an emotional employee.
The employee said he sincerely hopes that all employees, those who will be affected and those not, would stick together as one people to ensure that persons are not disenfranchised in anyway. “Because it is clear as day we can’t leave it up to our government to speak for us,” he noted.
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63 Responses to “More jobs to be lost as CIBC First Caribbean to downsize”
U shud read more the world recession is far fromover with every country in the world affected it is not to blame any govt, but to hope we can pull through somehow
employees mistakenly sent 7K of my business money to the wrong vendor. Send home that employee. I am sure it will help your bottom line. You must know things are bad when bank workers are treating errors as if nothing happened. They are yet to apologize much less fix the problem. Most of the problems her are inefficiencies. People must work at a higher standard.
Send home the one with the big attitude and giving those under her a hard time...seeing that she don't have anyone at the bank as friend ...well except for D@*y...she might as well start packing...and go dance her attitude inna deh church
Rome is only beginning to burn now, by end of year you will realize the BVI is in major trouble and cannot sustain the wasteful spending that has been going on with both NDP & VIP.
This is not just a government problem, it will effect all of us in a very negative way. Leaders need to have real discussion with industry partners. Explore real idea and new opportunities to move the economy forward.
Every country will go through rough times, the challenge is how do you come out of the challenges and rebuild a strong economy? How do we begin transition into a successful tourist, sailing and financial service sector. What small role can each of us play? What better service can we provide?
BVI Landers this is our home and if some of the rats that have been enjoying the cheese when it was in abundance, it time to roll up our sleeves and get to work making this place we call home a success story. Don't be fooled into thinking all is lost! The Hawks are waiting to buy up our land and homes and while we start looking at far away lands they begin to take over the place we call home and build economic and social walls to keep us out.
PEOPLE THIS IS NOT A GAME ANYMORE THE GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS IS REALLY BROKE!!!
When you really look at it there is enough jobs and thensome for each and every local desipte the recession, but the issue is we the local lack the requirement to full fill these roles.
Another reason why I belive we are having these issues are there is saturation of the job locals want. When a child come out of school majority of them chose to go into business or financial services. While there are other unattractive jobs (gooding paying thou) that are in high demands.
Just some things to ponder on.
This is a complete idiotic comment. We have well qualified ppl here for any job, they are just not given the chance maybe because of political reasons or affiliation. The government take ppl out of their jobs to replace them with outsiders so other companies see this and they know they can do it too. We have NO represention
Here are my 2 cents:
People need to have proper family planning
Government should really invest more in education
There should be some stats on jobs demands and where is over saturated
Reality is they took the best set of workers and carry them upstairs. The workers who cares for the customers like Ms. Penn, Mr. fahie and Ms. Maduro and a few others who use to have the bank rolling. Now they have the dancer who don't know how to treat staff and customers managing the floor. Give who doing the work and care about people the positions. I thought the Maduro girl have left the bank and I met her outside the bank under the tent selling to customers, she said she working upstairs. These are the pleasant faces we want to see on the front line. A disgruntled customer two cents
It's a sad situation, the only bad experience I had was with that cocky dude from An*g"d"@ hope he changes his attitude....
Hope u guys are not affected to bad,continue to pray.
This seem to be the order of the day ( lay-offs) but it is not only the private businesses doing this to survive soon the government may have to cut jobs too in order to survive if the recession keeps on.