UK Defence Ministry to cut up to 9,000 jobs

[armchair_jihad]

This seems to be an increase on previous announcements -

Up to 9,000 workers who buy and maintain equipment for the armed forces face losing their jobs under confidential cost-saving plans being drawn up by defence officials.

Senior managers at the Ministry of Defence’s procurement and logistics arm have been told to identify ways to cut the civilian payroll by up to a third without threatening services to frontline troops.

Separately, ministers are close to approving details of a voluntary redundancy programme across the whole MoD, set to be announced by the new year. The cost-saving measures are described as an effort to redirect resources to the front lines.

People familiar with the discussions said the 28,000-strong DE&S, which uses about 40 per cent of the MoD budget, could be trimmed to 19,000 by 2011. Accelerating the job cuts may require compulsory redundancies – something the department said it wanted to avoid.

In full

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/321adede-8b19-11dc-95f7-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

 

[The_Cad]

It's just a shame that Swiss Des won't be one of them.

 

[lsquared]

I see it this way: 'Bottler' Brown, as Chancellor, increased 'state jobs' by hundreds of thousands, thus building a 'rotten borough' that would be electorarily safe. This he did despite saying he would reduce the civil service. The one department of government that he can kick with total impunity is Defence. Why? The S of S (PT) is probably going to be away shoring up Liarbour in Scotland and will not object. As the 'Cad' said it is a real shame that 'Swiss' Browne is not one of the 9000.

 

[rickshaw-major]

WE must have had a helluva lot of fat in the system for the past 20 years if these cuts aren't going to affect front-line services. What a load of old tosh - of course it will affect front-line services.

 

[Cuddles]

WE must have had a helluva lot of fat in the system for the past 20 years if these cuts aren't going to affect front-line services. What a load of old tosh - of course it will affect front-line services.

RSM you have put it in a nutshell. The MOD has an expertise in salami-slicing that puts Italian delicatessens to shame but even they would struggle to deliver these cuts. Whatever happened to "irreducible minimums" and "core capability"? Do the pillars of force development appear to be subject to subsidence?

 

[jim30]

9000 jobs is nearly 15% of the MODs total staff. Even once you lose admin and HR types who are currently seen as expendable by the powers that be, you will lose a lot of project management types and experienced figures. My gut feeling is that they will do an 'early release scheme' where many people will take the pension offer and run, and then resort to redundancies as a last resort - mainly to prevent too much of a manpower blip in the system with lots of 50 somethings and few 30 somethings out there.

 

[OldSnowy]

9000 jobs is nearly 15% of the MODs total staff. Even once you lose admin and HR types who are currently seen as expendable by the powers that be, you will lose a lot of project management types and experienced figures. My gut feeling is that they will do an 'early release scheme' where many people will take the pension offer and run, and then resort to redundancies as a last resort - mainly to prevent too much of a manpower blip in the system with lots of 50 somethings and few 30 somethings out there.

Early release (or Redundancy) is indeed on the cards. For London the reductions are in the order of 40%, and it is going to be impossible to salami-slice to that extent. the solution? Go Lean..........

Now, anyone out there experienced the 'leaning' process? Great if you are a production-line industry, perhaps a bit different for a Department of State. Still, enough Management Consultants will no doubt be brought in to make it work.

 

[oldbooty]

AH you misunderstand what is meant by the phrase "wont affect frontline services" there wont be any frontline services job cuts. In theory you will have loads of money for vehicle maintenance but as there is no one left to do it then you clearly cant spend all the money..


Therefore you dont NEED all the money therefore they can cut that.....

As you dont NEED all the money you clearly are fully funded and therefore could do with looking for efficiency savings by way of job cuts..

and round we go again.

 

[oldbooty]

You know I have just scared myself with that logic

because I think thats how it works!

 

[Norfolknchance]

Call me an old cynic if you want but within 6 months of the 9,000 staff being given the old heave-ho, the MoD will be hiring a shed-load of "Consultants" at £1,000 a day plus to advise on how to do these jobs.

Makes yer sh1t nip!

 

[rickshaw-major]

WE must have had a helluva lot of fat in the system for the past 20 years if these cuts aren't going to affect front-line services. What a load of old tosh - of course it will affect front-line services.

RSM you have put it in a nutshell. The MOD has an expertise in salami-slicing that puts Italian delicatessens to shame but even they would struggle to deliver these cuts. Whatever happened to "irreducible minimums" and "core capability"? Do the pillars of force development appear to be subject to subsidence?

Quite. In the past I have had to work with ammo IPT's and their lack of knowledge in many areas was appalling - and I'm not getting at them because they get posted in to fill a slot (fnarr ) The head of one IPT stated she had never seen any of the weapon systems she was supposed the be in charge of.

However we are starting to lose our core knowledge and whilst it may not be obvious or of immediate interest to the guys in some sandy sh1thole somewhere (they are hitting the crocodile closest to the canoe which is up Sh1t Creek) this loss of core knowledge is both stupid and dangerous. It critically affects our ability to apply force at anything above Unit level (how long would it take UK to set up a Corps level operation? - answer - for ever, as we have cut the capability).

Such losses also affect our ability to use our technolgical advantages as effective force multipliers - we have just got rid of the people who maintain them at 3rd Line and Base area.

 

[Outstanding]

Closing the Big House in JHQ will take out about 500!!?

 

[Norfolknchance]

Closing the Big House in JHQ will take out about 500!!?

But I think the majority of them are LAND TLB assets, not DE&S. Still, just goes to show that the people in power who don't have to ask where the next round or meal is coming from don't have to worry about how they make up the 9,000.

It will be reported in the media as "MOD lose 9,000 backroom staff jobs" or somesuch. Joe Public couldn't give a rats where they're coming from.

 

[Outstanding]

It would be great if any of the savings thus made were to come back to the Forces as a whole. Chances are Zero!

 

[johnojohnson]

It would be great if any of the savings thus made were to come back to the Forces as a whole. Chances are Zero!

What savings? With "voluntary redundancies" and forced redundancies all requiring a pay off, the "savings" wont even be seen for the next 10 years as this will come out of our budget and not the uncivil services to pay for it.

The only good thing is....................... Oh I can't think of any at the moment, give me a week and I'll come up with something positive, I'm sure I will, possibly, well I might..just.

JJ

 

[Baldrick66]

Call me an old cynic if you want but within 6 months of the 9,000 staff being given the old heave-ho, the MoD will be hiring a shed-load of "Consultants" at £1,000 a day plus to advise on how to do these jobs.

Makes yer sh1t nip!

Call me Mr Cynical Mk2 but it won't just be Consultants they hire, someone has to do the work 9000 used to do, now obviously all those posts won't need to be filled, but I bet the likes of Serco, EDS, Logica, and BAe Systems are already rubbing their hands together and thinking of the profit they'll make from yet more f**ked up MOD contracts and outsourcing. Nice to know we as tax payers will be picking up the bill AGAIN!

 

[Barclays_Banker]

We need to put this into perspective - this 9000 comes on top of 10000 that were announced some 4 years ago ! So, as we come to the end of that initial tranche of redundancies across DLO/DPA (DE&S) we are hit with another 9000 to find. The IPTs are already struggling with their reduced numbers so the impact of losing another 9000 must be significant. And don't let anyone tell you any differently - there is no way that the procurement environment can operate effectively with ever decreasing numbers. Plus the impact on recruiting must be huge since no-one will want to join an organisation that sheds its workers in such a clumsy and unscientific manner. I find it ever more difficult to understand the thought processes of those people at higher levels who, on one hand tell us that they want to procure better kit to protect the soldiers, yet on the other rape the organisations who are trying to deliver their promises. This equation just does not balance !

 

[ANOther_STAB_in_the_Dark]

Just close down MoD in Bristol and sell the land. That must be 9000 and the building is sinking in to the marsh so I've been told

 

[armchair_jihad]

Call me an old cynic if you want but within 6 months of the 9,000 staff being given the old heave-ho, the MoD will be hiring a shed-load of "Consultants" at £1,000 a day plus to advise on how to do these jobs.

Call me Mr Cynical Mk2 but it won't just be Consultants they hire, someone has to do the work 9000 used to do, now obviously all those posts won't need to be filled, but I bet the likes of Serco, EDS, Logica, and BAe Systems are already rubbing their hands together and thinking of the profit they'll make

 

[Biped]

Let's play fair folks can we? In truth, there are somewhere in the region of an extra 1.5m civil service employees in the system from when Labliar came to power, from suits on wards to Lesbian Outreach Workers; not to mention £147 billion (let me spell it out for you) ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN BILLION POUNDS being spent on unelected quangos, such as Lesbian Action Groups.

Somebody has to find the money for this, and cuts have to be made.

I personally think that the MOD, as the most honourable of direct action service providers to the state should step forward and offer to make the necessary cuts from their provision to save the rest of the country. After all, it is the MOD and the service that it provides that has done so many, many times before, albeit in a slightly different manner.

Am I wrong?