NCB cuts 25 jobs
NATIONAL Commercial Bank (NCB) yesterday sent home 25 workers — the first in a series of redundancies slated to occur within the coming months — as part of its plan to restructure and increase profitability.
Company spokesman, Barbara Ellington said yesterday’s redundancies were the result of the merger of Edward Gayle and NCB Investments.
“The redundancies were planned for during the merger,” she said. ” More than a half have been offered (future employment).”
NCB Investments was one of the oldest money market firms in Jamaica, having started operations in 1989. But the company ran into problems in the early 1990s with its large investments in real estate and hotels.
Edward Gayle, as a stockbrokerage and primary dealer, is involved in a more diverse range of activities than NCB Investments, whose $15.8 billion in funds under management is largely government securities.
The entities merged in 2002.
Before the merger, NCB held 51 per cent controlling interest in Edward Gayle and Company, and owned 100 per cent of NCB Investments. Its partners in Edward Gayle are Jamaica National and FINSAC, the financial sector adjustment company. It has had to shed non-core assets and is now fully focused on money market activities, following the replacement of the group with the bank late last year, which saw Finsac assume its remaining unsold properties.
Yesterday’s announcements, however, form part of wider move to increase the banks efforts to create a new corporate image of a leaner, more efficient operation.
In 2001, a provision of $665 million was made for costs associated with the planned redundancy of 840 employees to be phased over the period 2003 to 2005, according to the company’s annual report.
This angered shareholders who at last year’s AGM flagged questions at new chairman, Michael Lee Chin who acquired 76 per cent of NCB from government at $6 billion through his Canadian company AIC Group. Their concern was that jobs were being destroyed by the new owner, rather than being created. He responded by suggesting that the lay-offs were planned long before his own stewardship at the institution.