Digital Equipment Corp’s Japanese subsidiary aims to shed 200 of its 3,800 employees via a voluntary retirement programme started because of falling profits. Under the plan, Nippon DEC will offer employees that leave the equivalent of between one and two years’ pay, depending on age and length of service. The company has not yet reported its figures for the year to June 30, but when they are announced they are expected to show that Japan contributed a loss to the figures the parent reported last month; it had been profitable the previous year, when the company as a whole made a loss. In July, DEC Japan reorganised its operations into divisions dedicated to different types of customers rather than product lines, leaving it with surplus staff.
