Going, Going …

Is it Philip Nitschke? No just the sound of corporate Australia putting a few more thousand workers out of their collective misery.

Commonwealth Axes 1600

The Commonwealth Bank will slash 1600 staff as part of a 'strategic review process'. CBA chief executive David Murray says the bank is looking to rationalise investment products and systems and focus on quality of service delivery to customers - we think that means more automatic tellers. The bank is basing next year's strategy on cutting costs rather than making money, slating $133 million off the bottom line, with $26 million revenue growth. (Source: The Daily Telegraph)

Telstra to Lop Another 10,000

That's nothing compared to Telstra's plans to cut up to 10,000 staff in the next three years. The plans are so contentious that Telstra has done away with actially declaring a precise headcount of staff. But at hearings of the Senate Reference Committee into the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts in Sydney this week, union representatives claimed they had been informed by Telstra operations on capital cutbacks of between 16-20 per cent. At the hearing Telstra's Bill Scales admitted Telstra now had 19,000 contract staff available to it outside the company. He conceded there were now more contractors than full-timers in Telstra's Infrastructure Services division. (Source: The Australian)

Burns Job Losses Mount

Despite a substantial lift in third-quarter earnings, Burns Philp has slated 500 jobs for the chop in subsidiary Goodman Fielder. Managing director Tom Degnan confirmed that 500 people had lost their jobs in the review so far, and that $25 million had been identified in annual cost savings.Analysts speculate that some 2000 jobs could be cut from the combined Burns Philp and Goodman Fielder staff of 9000, following Burns Philp's $2 billion acquisition of Goodman Fielder. (source: The Age)

Tugboat Jobs out to Sea

And Adsteam Marine has announced that it will cut jobs and sell non-core assets as part of a restructure designed to reduce costs and focus on its traditional ship towage business. The tugboat operator expects to post a $63 million net loss this year after $64 million in non-cash write downs on assets and $21 million in net restructuring costs. Adsteam has also cancelled dividend payments this year after a wide-ranging review of the company's global operations. (Source: NewsMSN)

HIH Probe To Expel Execs

Ninety insurance executives could face disqualification as the government insurance watchdog conducts its own probe into the $5.3 billion HIH collapse. Under expanded powers granted last year, the Australian Prudential Regulation Association can disqualify industry employees found to have operated outside the guidelines of what is considered fit and proper for a responsible person. The APRA action is separate from the 56 civil and criminal charges recommended by Justice Neville Owen in the HIH Royal Commission Report. (Source: The Australian)

BHP, Rio Tinto Face Cartel Probe

Australia's biggest miners, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, have been roped into a cartel-busting investigation of the copper concentrates market by international competition regulators. Both companies were coy yesterday on the extent of their involvement in the investigation, which was triggered by competition concerns brought on by cutbacks in copper concentrate production. The investigation kicked off on Tuesday with dawn raids on copper producers' offices in Europe and North America. (Source: SMH)

British Shareholders Pack a Punch

Finally, while shareholder activism continues to struggle in Australia, British shareholders today won an unprecedented victory over excessive pay deals for executives. Almost 51% of shareholders in Britain's third largest company, drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, voted to reject a proposed 22 million pound golden parachute for chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier if he loses his job. Under the banner "You won't get £22m for failure", The Guardian quotes unnamed institutional shareholders who suggest the Glaxo rebellion amounted to the most significant defeat of a big company's board at its annual meeting in memory The vote was the latest in a series of protests since the British government recently made it compulsory for companies to put their pay policies to a vote each year and investors are viewing it as a warning to other big companies that excessive boardroom pay deals would no longer be tolerated.

Read the Guardian's full report here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/executivepay/story/0,1204,959699,00.html

(Source: Crikey)