Забавно-актуальная заметка из JDW про начатую программу сокращения численности центрального аппарата министерства обороны Великобритании. Наличные 4330 человек, сидящие ныне в Лондоне, планируется к 2010 г. сократить на 25%. Режутся все структуры - так, ихнее ГРУ (Defence Intelligence Staff) будет сокращено на 122 чел с нынешних 592, а оперативный отдел (Оperational commitments section) МО - с 418 до 350 душ.
Планируется в итоге сократить расходы на содержание аппарата МО на 64 млн фунтов в год - ныне тратится 265 млн фунтов в год.
Профсоюз работников госучреждений сильно недоволен и уже намекает на забастовку. При этом профсоюзники говорят, что главная подлинная цель сокращений - стремление уменьшить число правительственных зданий в Лондоне (sic! - ну все как у нас :-))).
Jane's Defence Weekly
24-Oct-2008
UK defence chiefs give green light to job cuts at MoD headquarters
Tim Ripley
JDW Correspondent London
UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) chiefs have given the final go-ahead for a major programme of job cuts in the organisation's 4,330-strong London head office that could see it lose 25 per cent of its personnel by 2010.
The exercise, known as 'Streamlining', is aimed at saving some GBP64 million (USD105 million) a year on the MoD's GBP265 million annual staff costs in its head office operation, according to internal MoD documents seen by Jane's .
The ministry's senior management team, the Defence Board, gave the final go-ahead for the Streamlining effort to begin in July and, a week later, issued their plans to staff. The programme will see just under 1,200 posts lost in a major shake-up of the ministry's head office operation at its three central London sites from April 2009.
Every section of the ministry is being reorganised and having its staff reduced under the process, which was first announced in October 2007. Personnel, finance, staff training and science and technology will all take heavy hits, losing hundreds of staff.
A major restructuring is to take place in the Equipment Capability branch, which manages procurement and future force structure requirements and is to lose 139 of its 445 staff.
Defence Intelligence Staff is to lose 122 of 592 staff and the operational commitments section, which monitors Iraq and Afghanistan, is to have its staff cut from 418 to 350.
Defence chiefs are hoping to compensate for the loss of personnel with improved information technology and working methods.
A significant amount of the work is to be "offloaded" to subordinate organisations, although in documents seen by Jane's the ministry admits there are risks involved in this approach.
In a letter to MoD staff, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, and the ministry's Permanent Secretary, Bill Jeffrey, said: "The Defence Board decided to streamline the Head Office not as an end in itself - although reducing numbers and costs by 25 per cent frees up scarce resources for other important tasks - but to help stimulate and embed a more agile way of working across the MoD."
A spokesperson for the MoD said that throughout the implementation period the MoD would continue to consult informally and regularly with both the trade unions and staff.
However, Paul Barnsley, the Public and Commercial Services Union's national officer for staff in the MoD, told Jane's his union was consulting with its members about launching a "week of action" in early 2009 to oppose Streamlining, which could involve strike action.
Barnsley said his members in the MoD saw Streamlining resulting in a "large explosion of their workloads" while the government was clamping down on pay rises.
"These are centrally imposed targets" aimed at reducing the number of government buildings in London, he said, adding that the MoD's solution - less briefing and better IT - was "laughable".
"The Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) [IT] project, which Streamlining is predicated upon, is a GBP2 billion programme that is late and will cost GBP7 billion."
