Kenya: East African Portland Cement (EAPC) plans to lay-off over 1000 workers as part of plans to improve its efficiency. The company’s board has described the organisation as ‘severely over staffed’ and unable to compete with its rivals, according to Citizen Digital. At present it has around 2000 personnel and studies suggest that it only needs 500 of these workers to remain competitive.
Chairman Bill Lay said that high staff costs have contributed to the government-owned company’s financial problems. The management team is developing a voluntary early retirement program that will reduce staff levels. The company intends to spend US$19.6m towards the downsizing programme.