Pelco Asks 2,000 Employees to Take 2 Weeks Off
In an effort to reduce operating costs and ease surplus inventory, Pelco will impose furloughs for many of its U.S.-based employees for one week in July and August.
In making the announcement June 10 to employees in an internal memo, the company said the unpaid days were necessary, in part, because the global recession has caused a backlog of its video surveillance solutions.
“We build to inventory, we don’t build to order. We were building to our normal inventories and got caught because the business wasn’t coming in,” Joe Olmstead, Pelco’s director of marketing and communications, tells SSI. “This initiative is about trying to get some inventory down and some expenses under control.”
The unpaid days will effect about 2,000 employees at Pelco facilities in Clovis and Pleasanton, Calif.; Orangeburg, N.Y.; and Fort Collins, Colo. The vast majority of the employees work at the company’s world headquarters in Clovis.
About two months ago, Pelco’s manufacturing employees went to a four-day work schedule in a cost-cutting measure, according to Olmsted.
“Management decided more needed to be done to reduce expenses. So now the manufacturing employees will be furloughed for one week in July and one week in August,” he says.
Employees in departments other than manufacturing have been asked to take their vacations and paid time off during the months of July and August as well.
“All U.S. employees are being asked to take part in this initiative to reduce some of our operating costs and reduce inventory,” Olmsted says. “We are very much in business. We are shipping everyday. We are booking everyday.”
Furloughs and workforce reductions in 2009 alone have hit companies such as ADI, ADT, GE Security and UTC’s Fire & Security division.
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