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  Institute of Industrial Relations Library
   Labor and Employment Weblog
   University of California, Berkeley
Updated 5/24/2004; 11:10:28 AM

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Priority To Local Skilled Workers, Malaysian Construction Industry Told. HULU TERENGGANU, May 11 (Bernama) -- Construction companies should give priority to employing locally trained skilled workers rather than foreign labourers, Deputy Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Putera Tengku Awang said Tuesday. He said the government had spent huge sums of money to build training centres like the Construction Academy of Malaysia (ABM) which had produced numerous skilled workers.  Bernama May 11 2004 6:17PM GMT
3:38:55 PM    comment []

New Zealand Airline Origin Pacific cuts 93 jobs in shake-up. Origin Pacific has unveiled a pared-down structure after pulling back from the brink of financial collapse. Ninety-three jobs have gone from the Nelson-based airline, with only 28 workers taking voluntary redundancy.  [The New Zealand Herald: Business]
3:16:06 PM    comment []

German light bulb maker Osram to launch EUR 10 mln expansion of Slovak plant. German light bulb producer Osram will invest EUR 10 mln (SKK 400 mln) in the expansion of its production facility in the town of Nove Zamky in southern Slovakia. The expansion is expected to create over 400 new jobs in the coming three years - 300 direct jobs and some 100 indirect ones. Interfax Information Agency May 11 2004 10:20AM GMT
2:38:22 PM    comment []

Employing Humans To Get Real-Time Answers. I've always been a big fan of technology businesses that actually use humans to fill in the gaps where technology fails. However, as someone who runs a company that fits under that umbrella, the big question everyone asks is "how well does it scale?" I'm sure that's the same question that the folks that the folks running Any Questions Answered - a new service in the UK that lets anyone using a mobile phone send in a text message question - which will be quickly (one hopes) answered by a human at the other end (for a pound each). Of course, the trick to scaling is to have technology help those humans do what they do more efficiently. Thus, AQA's answerers apparently have some software (Google?) that helps them quickly answer standard questions. The company also is looking to employ random people at home to help answer the questions - which raises the inevitable (second) question of quality. Of course, in many ways this is similar to Google Answers - with the big difference being that you only pay if you get the correct answer with Google. Though, it's also not done via a mobile phone and not nearly as quick. [Techdirt]
11:36:58 AM    comment []

Cannes chiefs reach strike deal. Cannes Film Festival organisers reach a deal with striking arts workers - a day before the event starts. [BBC News | Europe | World Edition]
10:52:02 AM    comment []


Copyright 2004 Janice Kimball