World Bank to cut 500 jobs in some units as part of revamp 

The World Bank said it plans to cut 500 jobs over the next three years as part of a broad restructuring meant to make it more efficient but that has rattled employees.

The cuts, announced on Thursday, represent about an 11 percent reduction in the 4,500-employee workforce of the bank’s internal-facing divisions, including finance, human resources, research and security. These divisions employ about a quarter of the bank’s total staff.

The net result will be a loss of about 250 positions, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a note to staff on Thursday.

“Staffing decisions are always challenging,” Kim said in the note, which was obtained by Reuters. “But we feel confident that the changes we are making will help us better align our staffing to our strategy, which is what our clients want and what we must deliver.”

The reorganization has entailed $400 million in budget cuts to make the institution more competitive with development rivals and allow it to boost lending to middle-income countries.

Staff were also incensed after discovering the bank’s chief financial officer, who has pushed much of the cost-cutting, received a $94,000 bonus this year. To quell staff discontent, Bertrand Badre earlier this month said he would forego the $24,000 or so of the bonus that he had not yet received.

But that has not stopped employees from organizing regular work “stoppages” on Thursdays, advertised via yellow flyers of unknown provenance.

Source: Reuters-World Bank to cut 500 jobs in some units as part of revamp

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