Job Redundancies At Butterfield Group
51 employees across the Butterfield Group internationally were advised “that their positions were made redundant” and ”roughly half of the positions impacted are based in Bermuda,” the company has confirmed.
A spokesperson said, “Butterfield confirms that 51 employees across the Group internationally were advised on Monday [12 October] that their positions were made redundant as a consequence of internal reorganisation.
“Roles in several departments were affected. We have been very careful to adjust roles and responsibilities to ensure that our technology, product offerings, and client service will not be negatively impacted by these changes.
“The economic impact of COVID-19 has created a challenging operating environment for Butterfield and all banks. We have made structural changes to partially mitigate a decline in the Bank’s revenue caused by the economic fallout of the pandemic.
“The changes are in addition to a number of other cost management steps that have already been implemented, including voluntary employee separations, restrictions on business travel, premises consolidation, and limitations on the use of contractors and temps, among other initiatives.
“We are treating impacted employees fairly and with respect, providing outplacement support and severance packages that exceed statutory requirements.”
The statement referred to “51 employees across the Group internationally,” so Bernews asked how many of the positions are in Bermuda, and the spokesperson replied that “roughly half of the positions impacted are based in Bermuda, where the Group is headquartered and maintains its largest operations.”
By my count, there have been at least 70 layoffs plus the closure announcement of Leisure Time ( unknown amount of employees ) within the last 12 days! And that is only what we know of.
Bermuda is in for a very rough time, and there is still NO plan from from “ This Government “. Elections have consequences, and the electorate will soon find out how true that is!
It just shows how ignorant you OBA lot are and you will stop at nothing with your rhetoric. Like I said if you all could and get away with it you will blame the PLP for Covid-19 and the outcome. The OBA had absolutely NO clue or no Plan on how to take us forward. PlP have done an excellent job managing the virus on the island. The after effects which the ENTIRE world is experiencing will affect EVERYONE not just Bermuda. Especially since the like of your kind want us to solely depend on IB coming from mainly America, a place where they are in a depression because of this Virus. We voted the RIGHT government in and in due time they will solve this crisis.
Ok,ok. Do me a favor, remind me again what the PLP Plan is please?
I must have missed it.
This has nothing to do with COVID or the OBA. The writing was on the wall 3 years ago – all COVID has done is speed up the inevitable.
This is the end result of 22 years of utter stupidity.
Some people are so small minded and easily led that their first response is to blame the government (notice I didn’t say the PLP believe it or not there are some people who vote for the OBA because of the good times they had making money in the 80s when there was money to be made and that had little to do with the local government). Yes you can debate economic plans etc, but I haven’t seen anyone question the business (aka the bank). Yes there have been economic downturns and the government must navigate the rough seas and we can rationally discuss the condition of the boat, but when will we talk about the people rocking the boat because they selling buckets??? The bank has its own agenda and it has very little to do the government. The bigger businesses have been doing it all time regardless of government. Look at all the people they gotten rid of and watch their financial report at the end of the year, then as yourself who benefited. Ask who’s doing the work… is it being performed on island or if it’s being shipped overseas or how many of the local redundancies were Bermudians and how many were expats. People keep giving institutions like the bank free passes because they want it for their political fights, but most of the time they’re pointing the at the wrong target!
You miss the point entirely.
No really, I got what you were trying to get at. I didn’t want to call you names or accuse you of being an “armchair general” type and was giving you the opportunity to place some blame where it would be directed or offer some legitimate solutions. Especially since all but one person (at the time I’m reading this) questioned the motives of the organization instead of placing the blame solely on the government. So I’ll be a little more direct… What responsibility do large local organizations have to the local community? In addition to the government, how much blame should be placed on the larger organizations for their contribution to the unemployment numbers in their schemes to chase even bigger profits to the detriment of their local communities? Should they be singled out the same way the government is? Yes the government has a responsibility to the electorate, but the larger organizations also have a responsibility to the community to act as decent and responsible corporate citizens. How far do you believe the responsibility of corporate citizenship go? And while I understand that big businesses are in business to make money, should the government draft legislation to penalize large organizations when they go too far in order to protect the surrounding community? If the larger organizations should be allowed to do whatever they want to chase higher and bigger profits at all cost, what do you this the government should do to protect the community while not hampering the businesses from operating in a business friendly environment?
Did you get my point???
Fort Worth-Based American Airlines to Cut 19,000 Jobs because of PLP. Let’s blame COVID on why the oba One Broken Alliance received 5 votes and 1 JETGATE.
There is no-one to blame except the PLP.
What’s your issue, lady?
Burt closed the economy, which any fool could do. He has no idea how to get back up and running. That’s the challenging part, and he has no idea whatsoever. He is duped by conmen regularly, which costs Bermuda taxpayers millions, one way or another.
It wasn’t Covid that closed the economy, it was Burt. He had a choice. They won’t ‘solve this crisis’. They have no idea how to solve it, and no intention of trying.
You are blinded by your personal, poisoned prejudice if you don’t see that the whole world has been affected negatively from the Covid crisis and that people need to pull together for the common good as opposed to being divided and conquered.
You all is so blind did this man said he is OBA so much of this party nonsense that is why this country sinking
Thank you!
Your Government has once again failed the electorate, they have no plan for the economy, and because of that, there is soon going to be a heck of a lot of hunger, you soon are going to find out just how broke the government is!
when it comes to the US, I live here, and you should seriously research stuff before you spout nonsense! The US is not in a depression and in fact, its economy is rebounding very quickly, stay tuned to the next fiscal numbers coming out very soon, it will prove my point!
I can tell you, retail has strong numbers, and every store I go into, is busy, unlike Bermuda!
How you there and here at the same time???
And if there so great, why are you here???
I agree with you 100%. If the OBA has ideas, step forward and work with the PLP to get the job done. Otherwise, keep your mouths SHUT!
Why is the OBA constantly referred to when a PLP criticism cuts too close to the bone?
The OBA lost the election handsomely twice and have been a lackluster opposition–so please answer how such an ineffective force continues to be trotted out to counterbalance PLP criticism.
OBA lost–now its the PLP and the PLP which alone must answer for their actions now and for the past terms they have occupied the Gvt.
Exactly. The PLP have ZERO plan to get us out of this. Everything that they should have done a long time ago hasn’t been done – right after the 2017 election in fact would have been a good time. Now that the you-know-what is hitting the fan (and boy is it hitting the fan), they go and call an election just so that they can wipe out the opposition and have a one party state. That’s not a democracy. That’s a power trip.
We are two weeks into a new Govt and one Govt MP has been arrested (and how many times now has he had to be investigated and had to resign as a Minister?) and another has had to resign on the back of a harassment scandal from a month before the election. Come on, this PLP is a mess and has once again duped the voters with their tales of bogeymen trying to control us. Oh please.
We are back to pre-December 2012 level PLP.
You are absolutely correct! The plp continued to rack up debts since 2017, and they themselves are enjoying the good life at the tax payers expense, with no plan to get Bermuda out of the mess they themselves created!
And we have someone on here calling me ignorant?? SMDH!!
As a Bermudian I do not understand the mentality of voting the PLP back in again. It boggles the mind! People are already suffering and have seen that the PLP Govt does nothing, yet seem to think that things will be different this time around.
Burt is already spreading the rhetoric about sticking together through the difficult times ahead or some such nonsense. He knows that things are going to get worse but he’ll be just fine. He looked so triumphant on election night because he probably couldn’t believe his luck that people fell for the PLP baloney again. Burt & Co. will be just fine while telling everyone else to stick out the hard times. The PLP hasn’t announced a recovery plan because there is no recovery plan! Those of us with sense know that!!!
Thank God I’m retired and well off! This PLP Government will kill this Island and make us another Jamaica!
Yes you are lucky, and I am also, I took my hard earned money and left almost 2 yrs ago. Its only the clueless that don’t realize what’s about to hit them really hard, very soon!
‘Think not that you stand, lest you fall.’
If you are well off, I guess this means that you are in a position to give back and help your community. Each one, Reach one!
Talk about your country and leave Jamaica alone fight your own war
We have a lot of Jamaican refugees here maybe they could tell us what not to do.
Pi$$ off dumb a$$!
what saddens me is 800k went to a conman
That money could mean the difference for a small biz of staying afloat or sinking
Other countries are providing huge bailout funds to businesses and people while our govt has done nothing – yet had no prob giving the conman 800k
Yes govt gave funds during lockdown – but now and thru winter will be worse economically as no one could save their seasonal takings to get them thru winter
Burt and govt are failing to acknowledge this … so far…
I hope they plan to address it
wow … and what is Burt’s brilliant economic plan?
He has none or else those plans would have already started after July 2017. A shiny new app that allows you to pay via smartphone maybe? Wow. Amazing.
Argus, Markel, Butterfield .. who next?
There are smaller ones that don’t make the headlines. Common sense also seems to have got up and gone.
Don’t forget the 700 at South P
Ok,ok. Do me a favor, remind me again what the PLP Plan is please?
I must have missed it.
This is the inevitable result of 22 years of xenophobia, spending like kids in a candy store and with no accountability or improvements to efficiency.
I just drove through town, empty store fronts alone tell the story. This tells you about the lack confidence Butterfield have and the decline in local business. Follow them on LinkedIn and see how they are investing in the Channel Islands and supporting those communities. THat’s where they see growth.
And the PLP continually to hack around the edges of the elephant in the room. The answer was plain to see even 5 years ago.
Oh, go and look at the latest retail figures…..depressing reading.
I miss the old days when OJ was here.
Talk about your country and leave Jamaica alone fight your own war
If you don’t like it, don’t read it. No one wants Bermuda to become like Jamaica
Why do the banks always make staff redundant this time of year? HSBC is notorious for doing it and will probably be following suit right before Christmas. It may be neat and tidy for the banks but horrible for the employees affected. The banks have the resources to delay the decision until the new year.
I don’t know, maybe they try to do it before the employees burn through their credit cards on gifts, thinking they can pay the bill later but it just seems so heartless to me. As someone who has been made redundant the week before Christmas one year, it’s the most awful thing in the world. It took me a good five years before I could look at Xmas in a positive light again.
Finally someone is asking the right questions! You have people like Sandgrownan who are so quick to blame the government for everything without placing blame where it belongs (and no I’m not saying that they are perfect or infallible). The big businesses have their own agendas regardless of government and some people (like the one mentioned above) will place all the blame on the government (especially if it’s the one that they didn’t vote for). December is quickly coming and the big businesses will have to publish their earnings. What better way of making their books look better than to cut their cost. The highest cost for those types of businesses is salaries. If they cut their cost (ie salaries through redundancies, early retirements, outsourcing, or moving the the jobs to a cheaper jurisdictions)) before the quarter/year end it basically equates to instant profits that they’ll boast about and certain folks (like the one mentioned above) will praise them for the wonderful job they did in churning out a profit during economically difficult times. In short, it’s all about the cash and as long as people never hold the institutions accountable they’ll keep doing it.
*sigh*
BNTB as a local retail bank can viewed as a canary in the coal mine for the local economy. These job losses are the latest as they trim costs to increase or maintain shareholder value. The local operation cannot support more staff.
Drive around Hamilton today. Count how many closed and boarded up stores there are. The retail figures just released give you an indication of how much confidence and liquidity there is in the local economy (clue: none).
We have an oversized government and civil service we can no longer support, we don’t need and don’t want. We are $3bn in debt. We have a declining population and we go out of our way to be unwelcoming to our guest workers.
This is entirely on the PLP. This is entirely their fault and they have no idea what to do. 22 years of PLP status quo. It’s on them.
You can piss and moan about the OBA and Jetgate and all the other bullsh*t political catchphrases but you end up back where you are now. Holding an empty sack.
The real issue apart from private sector job losses is that the PLP is increasing the size of the Civil Service, when they should have been reducing it annually. Tax revenue is falling, but Government expenses are not. The easy solution, loved by the PLP, is to borrow more. Jobs have to be shed, or services privatized. Unfortunate but no different to people in the private sector losing jobs and having to find something else.
IRingmaster get your point and in part I can agree with you. My main issue with this thread is that while I can with you regarding government spending, I disagree that the layoffs are a direct effect of the government’s financial effectiveness (some would say lack of effectiveness and those of us adults which will exclude Sandgrownan can debate the topic). I think it’s a bit distasteful for effected to read these comments and have no one question their former employer and everyone assume that the employer is a victim as well and that the government (no matter who it is) is the big bad wolf.
Ouch!
Shareholder value is all that matters.
I asked you a couple questions further up that I’m waiting for you to respond to. I’m not giving the government a free pass. What I don’t get is how your giving the larger institutions (like the banks) a free pass. They are not the canary… they are more like the cat. The larger institutions have always had impacts on the community that have had little to do with the presiding government and more to do with their bottom line and presiding government will by default take the credit or the blame. Notice I never mentioned Jetgate or the OBA. What I said was that you’re placing all the blame on the government and you’re giving the bank a free pass… they are not the victim in this situation and I’m waiting for your take since you seem to have an opinion on just about everything.
Hold on. I’m not giving BNTB a free pass, they have only one goal and that’s to increase shareholder value. The sooner folks wise up to the fact that they (banks) are not welfare organisations the better. In the case of BNTB, we know they have a toxic management culture and view staff as expendable.
But, and this is key, the fortunes of a local retail Bank, and by extension its workforce, is directly tied to the performance of the economy. Our economy is boned for all the reasons we discuss ad infinitum. In a stronger economy, those displaced might have a better chance. Now, they don’t. That’s the point.
As I said, go look at how BNTB are investing in The Channel Islands.