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Published:
15/07/2009
NEC GROUP CONFIRMS 82 REDUNDANCIES
The NEC Group has confirmed that 82 job cuts will be made – significantly fewer than it had expected.
In April Paul Thandi, chief executive of The NEC Group, announced that more than 100 redundancies could be made across the company’s four Birmingham venues following a 90-day consultation.
However the Group has said the number of redundancies had been reduced during the consultation process as a result of affected staff being recruited into existing vacancies and new positions created in the reorganisation.
“This has been a difficult and worrying time for many of our employees,” said Thandi. “However these proposals were considered very carefully and the decision to make employees redundant was not taken lightly.
“The NEC Group is not immune from the downturn in the economy and we have seen a significant drop in revenues in some areas of our business, particularly exhibitions. As a business with a regional economic impact of £2bn, supporting 29,000 jobs, it is critical that The NEC Group is in a strong position to endure this current economic crisis and emerge fighting fit to deliver the groundbreaking developments planned for our venues in the longer term.
“During the consultation, employee and Unite representatives – and individual affected employees – contributed significantly to the development of many of the proposals and I would like to pay tribute to them all for their professionalism and dignity throughout this process.”
He added that the NEC had put in place a comprehensive support programme for affected employees which includes visits by Job Centre Plus and workshops on interview skills and managing emotions.
As part of the reorganisation, Richard Pegler, managing director of managed events, has been appointed interim exhibition and conference sales director, described as ‘a broad commercial role which is designed to respond to the changing needs of The NEC and its customers’.