No pay for Honeywell employees for 10 days

Honeywell has announced that its employees will have to take a mandatory 10 days off in the month of December-January without pay. Krishna Mikkilineni, President of Honeywell Technology Solutions, conveyed the decision at a public gathering in Bangalore recently, reports a media.

On this matter, a Honeywell Spokesperson said, "Even as Honeywell continues to grow its businesses in India, our employees have agreed to participate in a voluntary and temporary reduced work schedule, in consonance with their colleagues elsewhere."

Honeywell, which makes products like aviation electronics, car turbochargers and temperature control systems for buildings, has been hit badly by the global recession in all of the key businesses it supports - aviation, auto and property. In the second quarter ended June 30, its profit plunged 38 percent and revenue dropped 22 percent.

In the quarterly report, the company said that it did not expect any recovery this year from the recession, as customers were expected to keep holding off on the purchase of Honeywell parts. Sales in the aerospace unit, which makes radar systems and other aviation equipment, dropped 17 percent, to $2.7 billion. The company said that many of its airline customers were choosing to use parts from their own idled planes for repairs rather than buying new parts from the company. One of the few growth areas is military sales, where Honeywell expects a three percent growth in sales. David M. Cote, Chief Executive, Honeywell said, "We are executing very well. Unfortunately, it is a very tough economic environment."

The company has taken a number of cost cutting measures. At least for some employees in the U.S., Friday is now a half-day without pay. In India, where it has 10,000 employees, benefits like cafeteria subsidies and vacation rewards at the end of five years of service with the company have been withdrawn.

SiliconIndia

Any kind of protectionism is harmful, says Honeywell chief

Any kind of protectionism is going to be harmful for the world economy, a top official of Honeywell International, a Fortune 100 Global diversified technology and manufacturing firm, said on Thursday.

"Any kind of protectionism in India or China or elsewhere is very harmful or worrisome for the global economy", said David Cote, Honeywell's Chairman and CEO, reacting to US President Barack Obama's
announcement about end of tax incentives to companies which create jobs overseas in places like Bangalore.

" I am not against creating jobs anywhere. I do know that anything that stops globalisation activity, any protectionism will be very harmful", he told reporters here.

"A great number of businesses would be seeing protectionism as negative, as bad. And I do hope that people in the Congress (US Congress) realise that you can't love jobs and hate people who create them", he said.

He said Honeywell's new "green diesel" has already been used in test flights in New Zealand.

"The green diesel, which is a drop-in diesel, which can be made from plants like algae has already flown test flights in New Zealand", he said to a query on the firm's speciality materials business.

"We have also come up with a new fertiliser called Ammonium Sulphate Nitrate", he said.

Agencies