KUALA LUMPUR: There will be no more reduction in manpower this year, says Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) President and chief executive officer Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin.
When asked on the possibility of restructuring, Wan Zulkiflee said there will be no major restructuring concerning its manpower strength.
“So far, about 2,300 people have been affected. Some of which whose contracts were not renewed and some of them were offered Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS). Most of them are expatriates who were on contract basis.
“Going forward, we strive to be a high-performance merit-based organisation. So if there is optimisation of our manpower, it will mainly be based on performance. For our non-performers, we have a programme which would result into outplacements,” said Wan Zulkiflee.
Pressed on further about possible job cuts this year, he said some time should be given to make way for the positive results to yield out of the initiatives set in place last year.
“We have restructured the organisation and I don’t believe it should be done every year and we should give it time as we have seen some positive results on what we have done last year.
“Maybe we will tweak here and there but I don’t anticipate a major restructuring this year,” he added.
In March last year, Petronas announced manpower cuts where up to 1,000 jobs were slashed in a bid to cope with slumping oil prices. Voluntary separation schemes (VSS) were offered within six months to selected staff following an on-going talent matching and redeployment exercise effective April 1.
The restructuring exercise was carried out to reduce redundancies as the company then aimed for a flatter, leaner and efficient business operating model.