Times are hard and losing a job is always terrible.
After reporting a drop in the last quarter profits, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) announced yesterday that they are cutting up to 1,000 jobs to compensate for their loss due to the plunging global oil prices. The layoffs for the affected employees will take place over the next 6 months.
“Exhaustive efforts are on-going to re-deploy affected employees. Petronas will further embark on a separation exercise for these employees as needed, which is expected to be completed over the next six months,” the company said in a statement. It didn’t clarify if the vacated positions will be the permanent staffs or contract employees.
According to The Star, Petronas will be offering a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) to selected staff following an ongoing talent matching and redeployment exercise. Non-critical contract staff will not see their employment extended.
The Borneo Post also reported that the Malaysian state energy firm will embark on a strategic evaluation of its enterprise operating model under its new leadership team for better business efficiency, resilience, and sustainability.
Under the review, leadership changes within the company will take effect from 1st April 2016. Among the changes were Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib replacing Datuk Wee Yiaw Hin as the new executive vice-president and chief executive officer in charge of the upstream division.
Earlier this week, Petronas reported its third loss in 5 quarters, following a 53% drop in pre-tax profits to RM36bil for the year ending 31st Dec, 2015. In addition, the company also announced cuts in capital and operating expenditure of RM50 billion ringgit over the next 4 years.
Sources: Malay Mail, Malaysian Insider, The Star Online, Bloomberg.
