Turnover at the government's central marketing agency shrinking by more than 50 per cent was yesterday blamed for its decision to axe 287 jobs - 40 per cent of its staff.
Announcing the redundancies, the Central Office of Information said the state's freeze on marketing and ad spending had "significantly reduced [its] volumes of work."
In fact, the office's turnover from advertising and marketing fell by 52 per cent in June, compared with the same month last year, before the freeze was introduced.
To "reflect the reduced volume of work," staff numbers at the COI will fall from 737 to 450, through voluntary redundancies initially and compulsory lay-offs if necessary.
Signalling that it sees the job losses as unavoidable, the agency said it expected lower spending on communications by central departments to continue "into the future."
This appears likely because, under the freeze that commenced last month, only essential new and existing campaigns will be allowed to continue, the office said.
Chief executive Mark Lund said: " COI has always adapted to meet the requirements of government and...a leaner COI is in line with new government priorities."
He added that his future focus will be on continuing to achieve the government's communications aims "in the most cost efficient and effective way possible."
For those COI staff on the wrong side of the efficiency line, a formal 90-day consultation opened on Tuesday (August 2nd), and runs up until November 1st, 2010.
Aug 6, 2010
Email this article
Printer friendly page
Previous Page
