Redundancy plan at OS office (From Daily Echo)
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Redundancy plan for Ordnance Survey staff in Southampton
9:46am Tuesday 11th August 2009 in News
Redundancy plan at OS office
ONE of Southampton’s flagship employers is asking staff for voluntary redundancies as part of a bid to slash costs by up to £20m.
Mapmaker Ordnance Survey said it is too early to say how many staff it needs to shed in order to make the cuts, estimated at £5m a year for between three and five years.
Bosses are waiting to see how many staff take up the voluntary offer and how far that puts them towards a plan agreed with the Government to shave five per cent a year off the budget.
About 50 per cent of the agency’s running costs are down to staff.
The money saved will allow OS to give away mapping information to charities and community groups like the Scouts for use on their websites and to reduce charges for businesses to use the service.
The 1,300-strong workforce, including 1,000 at the Romsey Road site, was told of the plan to cut costs in January this year and boss Vanessa Lawrence warned then that redundancies could not be ruled out.
Work on the agency’s £45m new headquarters next to the M271 on the edge of the city is progressing, running just two days behind schedule.
A spokesman for OS said it was not possible to say how many staff would ultimately go.
“We don’t have any specific numbers,” he said. “What we are doing at the moment is opening this up to anyone interested in either early severance or voluntary redundancy and then we’ll take a look at the numbers we need then.
“It is about making sure we have got the skills we need going forward and the right people doing the right jobs. It is about long term sustainability. We signed up to take five per cent out of our cost base every year and a large part of that is making sure we are working efficiently.”
Comments(18)
Barney123
says...
10:06am Tue 11 Aug 09
gorf wrote:err... have you got a clue what you're talking about?
Maybe they shouldnt have been so lazy when it came to sat nav systems and the likes of google maps. its old hat now
The majority of the mapping from Google Maps and Sat Navs comes from the Ordnance Survey, with products like ITN and OSCAR. This is how they make most of their money nowadays.
Donald2000
says...
10:39am Tue 11 Aug 09
This obsession with the financial sector of the economy to the exclusion of all else will be the destruction of this country for good; somebody, somewhere needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
gorf
says...
11:06am Tue 11 Aug 09
Barney123 wrote:So whats is TELE ATLAS then Barney123?
gorf wrote: Maybe they shouldnt have been so lazy when it came to sat nav systems and the likes of google maps. its old hat nowerr... have you got a clue what you're talking about? The majority of the mapping from Google Maps and Sat Navs comes from the Ordnance Survey, with products like ITN and OSCAR. This is how they make most of their money nowadays.
Do a google search for TELE ATLAS
gorf
says...
11:07am Tue 11 Aug 09
Cheapshot
says...
11:27am Tue 11 Aug 09
gorf wrote:gorf, i work at the OS and sat nav system are way way way down the list of important products, in fact they don't even come into it! We deal with much more high tech stuff than making sure u get from A to B quickly. We're about 10 years in the future in regards to technology like that!!
Maybe they shouldnt have been so lazy when it came to sat nav systems and the likes of google maps. its old hat now
Hazle Nutt
says...
11:32am Tue 11 Aug 09
Barney123
says...
11:33am Tue 11 Aug 09
gorf wrote:Why don't you do a Google search to see where they and NavTech got their core road centre line data?
Barney123 wrote:So whats is TELE ATLAS then Barney123? Do a google search for TELE ATLASgorf wrote: Maybe they shouldnt have been so lazy when it came to sat nav systems and the likes of google maps. its old hat nowerr... have you got a clue what you're talking about? The majority of the mapping from Google Maps and Sat Navs comes from the Ordnance Survey, with products like ITN and OSCAR. This is how they make most of their money nowadays.
It may be now updated by thenselves but it was based on ITN a few years ago.
goard
says...
12:19pm Tue 11 Aug 09
goard
Parksey
says...
1:17pm Tue 11 Aug 09
Barney123
says...
1:47pm Tue 11 Aug 09
People wouldn't believe how much a bacon roll with a cuppa raised spirits back in the old days of the underpaid but motivated and attentive workers.
Ken Hutchinson
says...
2:16pm Tue 11 Aug 09
MaxxieO
says...
3:04pm Tue 11 Aug 09
Compulsory redundancies, on the other hand, are a very bad thing indeed.
goard
says...
3:24pm Tue 11 Aug 09
goard
Condor Man
says...
7:02pm Tue 11 Aug 09
southy
says...
7:59pm Tue 11 Aug 09
jacknjill
says...
8:05pm Tue 11 Aug 09
Donald2000
says...
9:42am Thu 13 Aug 09
jacknjill wrote:That's an extremely good point and I think that its the same with any employment these days. There are a substantial amount of employers who dont want people to do the job, or show any initiative, or minds of their own. Highly surprising when you have a government who thinks that fiddling expenses is clever or giving our GDP to the banks is something that is to be considered sane whilst everyone else goes to the wall.
Having worked at OS I must say that the place is over staffed and in need of a huge shake up. The problem is that the staff left will not be "about making sure we have got the skills we need going forward and the right people doing the right jobs" as the spokesman suggests those that will be the yes men and women that nod in all the right places those that actually have ideas and opinions will be shown the exit! As with most organisations its if the face fits not about getting the right people to take OS forward.
gorf says...
9:57am Tue 11 Aug 09
its old hat now