Uganda: Nile Breweries lays off 28 employees

NILE Breweries Ltd has completed a second internal restructuring exercise in which 28 permanent employees have been laid off, AllAfrica Global Media posted on May 3. The exercise, which started in August last year, and implemented in the first quarters of the year, brought the total number at the beer company to 178 down from 210.

Majority of those laid of were from the production department. NILE Breweries is a subsidiary of the South African-based giant beer brewer, SAB Millers.

Mr Kenneth Wanyoto, the company's Human Resource Director, told Daily Monitor that the exercise was based on its policy to stick to the Group's employment benchmark. "The rationale for change was a [requirement] to adhere to certain benchmarks in order to be competitive," he said.

SAB Millers is the second largest brewing company in the world, with over 150 brewing businesses across the globe.

In an internal memo to staff dated January 5, Wanyoto also said: "a lot of work has been done to understand the correct number of staff required to run breweries of similar size in similar conditions. We have been compared to Mwanza, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland."

The memo pointed out that several negative consequences including inability to pay market related packages across the business; negative effects of inefficiency and productivity were being experienced due to the poor productivity numbers. "Because of the need to address these negative consequences, we have to redesign and streamline our organisation structure," the memo read in part.

Wanyoto said majority of those affected had worked for the company for over 15 years and others had clocked retirement age of 55 years.

NBL's restructuring follows closely that of Uganda Breweries Ltd, which laid off 15 percent of its staff following increasing operational costs.

The move underscores a rising concern by companies to cut costs because of an acute electricity crisis that is forcing companies to operate at less their optimal capacity. Some companies have opted to use diesel generators albeit at higher cost of production.

Wanyoto said the whole process was carefully planned for a win-win situation. He said the company gave affected employees business training in entrepreneurship. Some formed companies that are now offering services to NBL like Car Washing, catering services for casual workers and plumbing services among others.

In the previous restructuring two years ago a group of former employees who underwent training formed a company called Smart Clean Services and now NBL is using their services.

Ms Christine Nakazibwe, a former NBL employee, said after she lost her job as a cleaner she was helped to get another job.

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