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| National |
| BP Malawi trims staff by half |
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by
Joseph Langa, 11 June 2003
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08:15:48
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Leading oil company BP Malawi will in July lay off 200 of its 400 employees in the country when the company stops managing its service stations to give a chance to new dealers, a senior official confirmed on Monday.
BP Malawi corporate affairs manager Alice Konyani said in an interview the company is moving away from managing retail sites to give an opportunity to Malawian dealers who will hire their own staff to manage them on one year contracts.
She said the 200 employees which the company has in 18 service stations still under its management will be retrenched and they may reapply to the new owners who have been advised to retain up to 75 percent of the original qualified staff who are there.
She said the company is currently briefing the workers on some of the opportunities they may take before next month when they will be getting their final pay.
Konyani said the workers are being trained how to run their own businesses so that they can apply to be managers of the service stations or run businesses of their own choice after getting “their handsome retrenchment package” next month.
“We have given the workers several options to think about between now and next month. They can apply to be managers of the service stations or run their own businesses. We are currently giving them entrepreneurial training.
“We will also give the workers first priority on any vacancies that may exist in the company should the new managers of the service stations not hire them,” she said.
According to Konyani, the change from company managed retail sites to dealer-operated sites is in line with the company policy in southern Africa where they are moving away from operating retail businesses.
She said only BP Malawi was still managing service stations in Africa .
“We are also giving Malawians an opportunity to operate their own businesses,” she said. |
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