Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

[gsgs]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

The government is now preparing an update of the plan, initially outlined in November, to reflect public feedback that was gathered in recent weeks, Health Ministry official Yosuke Yamaki said on Thursday.

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Welcome and thank you SuperNova1987A!

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

SuperNova1987A, thank you for joining FluTrackers. I appreciate your first-hand comments about the local perspective of the Panasonic recall of family members.

 

[SuperNova1987A]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

A Japanese member here.

Is it a coincidence?
Yes and no.
First of all, we are in the middle of seasonal flu season here in Japan and this year's flu is the most widespread in the last several years. A big news of in-hospital infection last month where one hundred+ aged people got H3N2 and three people were dead. So, people talk a lot about the flu and the media is looking for any news related to the ordinary or pandemic flu.
Actually, japanese gov. made public the details of their revised pandemic plan for public comments during last Nov and Dec. There was a news about that but did not attract much attention. The government wanted to officially realease the revised plan as early as mid-January but it did not happen maybe because there were more opinions than they expected.
Kansen Retto, the movie, was released on Jan 17 most probably considering the flu season.

_____________
SuperNova1987A

 

[SuperNova1987A]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Thank you everybody for welcoming me.

I was always a read-only member of this great site.
But I work in the overseas operations department of a japanese company.
So, Panasonic issue is not a somebody else's issue.

______________________
SuperNova1987A

 

[gsgs]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

sis there some significant panflu-preparation spending bill to be
discussed in Japanese parliament in the next months ?

I remember we had this in early 2006 in USA ($7B), also a WHO panflu
support program (~$2B?)
with much public attention at that time

 

[mixin]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Thanks for joining and sharing your insight.

A decision such as the one Panasonic made can cause a lot of nervous speculation.

 

[gsgs]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

if they were serious about this - (health of their employee-families,
not cost reasons) then they should be eager to discuss it in public.

Nothing on their webpage, hiding it Dec.-Feb., no forum-contribution,
no blog. Why doesn't Panasonic say anything ? Why don't they
emit mortality bonds ? Are they afraid the truth could come out ?



http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/topics/influenza/index.html

 

[Diane Morin]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans



I think that Panasonic or other companies are eager above all to be ensured to be able to continue their operations longest possible and as soon as possible to take again their activities after a pandemia. That would locate them in an advantageous way by report/ratio at competition. With this intention, it is necessary that their employees survive initially. They are employees with qualifications. So that they remain in station longest possible, it is necessary that they know their family in safety. To make a success of all that Panasonic must take steps and negotiations. Certain negociations, to succeed do not need necessarily to be spread out over the public place. Panasonic doubtless sought to keep the advantage in the negotiations in progress (for example plane tickets). The interests of Panasonic and its employees coincide only up to one certain point. Panasonic makes me think of the third category described here.


?There are three kinds of politicians : those which disturb water; those which fish out of turbid water; and those, more endowed, which disturb water to fish out of turbid water. ?



******************

Je pense que Panasonic ou d?autres compagnies sont d?sireuses avant tout de s?assurer de pouvoir continuer leurs op?rations le plus longtemps possible et de reprendre le plus rapidement possible leurs activit?s apr?s une pand?mie. Cela les situerait de fa?on avantageuse par rapport ? la concurrence. Pour ce faire, il faut que leurs employ?s survivent d?abord. Ce sont des employ?s avec des qualifications. Pour qu?ils demeurent en poste le plus longtemps possible, il faut qu?ils sachent leur famille en s?curit?. Pour r?ussir tout ?a Panasonic doit entreprendre des d?marches et des n?gociations. Certaines tractations, pour r?ussir n?ont pas n?cessairement besoin d??tre ?tal?es sur la place publique. Panasonic a tr?s certainement cherch? ? garder l?avantage dans les n?gociations en cours (par exemple le billets d?avions). Les int?r?ts de Panasonic et de ses employ?s co?ncident seulement jusqu?? un certain point. Panasonic me fait penser ? la troisi?me cat?gorie d?crite ici.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

"Il y a trois sortes d'hommes politiques: ceux qui troublent l'eau; ceux qui p?chent en eau trouble; et ceux, plus dou?s, qui troublent l'eau pour p?cher en eau trouble."

Arthur Schnitzler

Extrait de Relations et solitudes

http://www.evene.fr/citations/mot.php?mot=trouble

 

[gsgs]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

you can buy a lot of vaccine and antivirals, masks etc. for the money required to relocate families and ensure content employees nevertheless.

 

[Diane Morin]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

You will have to buy masks, the antiviral ones, vaccines for the employees and their family, to have access to care in a foreign country (by paying them very expensive if they are available) and perhaps to have to in any event repatriate the employees and the families in chaos. You will not have more the assurance which the employees will be able to go to work.

*********************

Vous devrez acheter des masques, des antiviraux, des vaccins pour les employ?s et leurs famille, avoir acc?s ? des soins dans un pays ?tranger (en les payant tr?s chers s?ils sont disponibles) et peut-?tre devoir rapatrier de toute fa?on les employ?s et les familles dans le chaos. Vous n?aurez pas plus l?assurance que les employ?s vont pouvoir se rendre au travail.

 

[gsgs]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

can someone please help to estimte, what the costs are per person
for the Panasonic repatriating plan ?

assuming, that it were all, as Panasonic says, that cost cutting
ot other economical reasons play no role at all.


just to start....
...it must be thousands per person, right ?

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

One of the huger cost for a company is the loss of ''fa?ade'' - and during these hard times when a ''paper'' economy is to be wiped out, every move or decision of a management aimed at partially restore the imagine of seriousness could result in a better outcome for people previously involved in market's ''happy'' trading - then acknowledged as part of the global recession cause.

While none could exclude a priori the existence of a ''deep-throat'' among japanese corporation(s), who is selling ''confidential'' or ''classified'' informations about a phantomatic viral mutation, other - much more prosaic - reasons may be behind these bloody headline decisions.

 

[gsgs]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

yes, may.
But how much is "may" in numbers ?

 

[SophiaZoe]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Obviously, I don't know the facts that underpin the decision by Panasonic, however, at its most simplistic level it may not be anything more than when Branson purchased Tamiflu for each of his employees "way back when".

Some corporations are more "forward thinking" than others. And, there is no arguing that in most industries/businesses it is the "human factor" that accounts for vast expense but even greater expense if the corporation finds itself replacing workers. Loss of productivity due to one trained and skilled employee leaving starts at ~ 10,000 and goes up from there.

Right now it is fairly safe to assume H5N1 is an environmental risk but not airborne. It is far easier for a corporation to "protect its investment" in its "human capital" by issuing orders to not consume poultry, an order that would not be so easily implemented across a family, yet the catastrophic illness and potentially fatal outcome of a sick child or wife would impact a local operation's bottom line in very bad ways, and in this economy... every 10,000 is meaningful.

By trying to puzzle out the upfront costs to Panasonic for repatriation of family members, and there may not be any costs to the company as already pointed out in this thread, we lose sight of the money they will not have to expend due to illness/death. Panasonic is doing all that it can reasonably do (at this point in time) to proactively protect what "bottom line" they do currently have.

Frankly, I find it a corporate stroke of genius.

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Among people hit by this ''stroke'' there are with certainty those in lay-off and other will follow if recession continues its spiralling circle.

 

[HenryN]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

A Japanese member here.

Is it a coincidence?
Yes and no.
First of all, we are in the middle of seasonal flu season here in Japan and this year's flu is the most widespread in the last several years. A big news of in-hospital infection last month where one hundred+ aged people got H3N2 and three people were dead. So, people talk a lot about the flu and the media is looking for any news related to the ordinary or pandemic flu.
Actually, japanese gov. made public the details of their revised pandemic plan for public comments during last Nov and Dec. There was a news about that but did not attract much attention. The government wanted to officially realease the revised plan as early as mid-January but it did not happen maybe because there were more opinions than they expected.
Kansen Retto, the movie, was released on Jan 17 most probably considering the flu season.

_____________
SuperNova1987A

Thanks for the "boots on the ground" update. However Panasonics concerns could easily nhave been based on public events. Japan has always had great deal of concern about H5N1. Last spring South Korea reported their biggest H5N1 reported to date. Japan enhanced surveillance and immediately found dead whooper swans that were H5N1 positive. However, the H5N1 was clade 2.3.2, which was the same as that reported in wild birds in Hing Kong, making it clear that wild birds were transporting H5N1 over China, which was not reporting outbreaks.

A culler in South Korea was infected, had symptoms, and was PCR H5 confirmed, but quickly responded to Tamiflu treatment. Korea couldn't isolate the H5N1 from the culler so they didn't report the infection and did hand waving about no clade 2.3.2 infections in humans. WHO did nothing until now, when they reported clade 2.3.2 in a Guangxi fatal case, indirectly addressing Koreas nonsensical argument, but Korea still has no official human case.

Japan then announced that it would start a pre-oandemic campaign. This approach had been validated in multiple clincal trials. but most countries ignored the data and stockpiled outmoded and outdated vaccines that will be useless.

The Tamiflu resistance in seasonalm flu has been clear for some time, and when South Africa went to 100% in teh summer, it was clear H274Y would become fixed. Japan saw that first hand in October, when elementray schools closed to to Tamiflu resistant H1N1.

Vaccines and antivirals will do little, especially if there is no vaccine priming.

The sudden jump (and halt) of cases in China aeree just icing on the cake.

Panasonic knows what it is doing, while those that can't read an H5N1 sequence or understand how H5N1 evolves are surprised.

 

[SophiaZoe]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Among people hit by this ''stroke'' there are with certainty those in lay-off and other will follow if recession continues its spiralling circle.

That is an assumption on your part, and I certainly don't believe the two issues are related, connected, or germane to the topic of repatriation of family members.

Layoffs due to the current global recession may be congruent [spatially related], and layoffs due to future developments on the H5N1 front are quite likely, however, I find it difficult to imagine Panasonic's actions regarding the family members will have any impact on their current personnel retention, ie, it will not cause layoffs within Panasonic, though they may occur for other reasons.

As a "Bean-head" by day, perhaps my perspective is somewhat limited or narrow. :surrender:

 

[HenryN]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Obviously, I don't know the facts that underpin the decision by Panasonic, however, at its most simplistic level it may not be anything more than when Branson purchased Tamiflu for each of his employees "way back when".

Some corporations are more "forward thinking" than others. And, there is no arguing that in most industries/businesses it is the "human factor" that accounts for vast expense but even greater expense if the corporation finds itself replacing workers. Loss of productivity due to one trained and skilled employee leaving starts at ~ 10,000 and goes up from there.

Right now it is fairly safe to assume H5N1 is an environmental risk but not airborne. It is far easier for a corporation to "protect its investment" in its "human capital" by issuing orders to not consume poultry, an order that would not be so easily implemented across a family, yet the catastrophic illness and potentially fatal outcome of a sick child or wife would impact a local operation's bottom line in very bad ways, and in this economy... every 10,000 is meaningful.

By trying to puzzle out the upfront costs to Panasonic for repatriation of family members, and there may not be any costs to the company as already pointed out in this thread, we lose sight of the money they will not have to expend due to illness/death. Panasonic is doing all that it can reasonably do (at this point in time) to proactively protect what "bottom line" they do currently have.

Frankly, I find it a corporate stroke of genius.

You are correct. Panasonic can read the handwriting on the wall. The link with the economy is the increased liklihood that the seasonal flu vaccine will AGAIN use Brisbane/59 for H1N1 which will increase the level of Tamiflu resistant H1N1. Right now China is hanging onto clade 2C, but it will almost all be Tamiflu resistant clade 2B by fall and mixing H5N1 with Tamiflu resistant H1N1 leads to a VERY bad outcome.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Panasonic Says Bringing Workers Families Home Due to Pandemic Fears - Discussion, Economic Considerations, Other Companies Pan/Flu Plans

Among people hit by this ''stroke'' there are with certainty those in lay-off and other will follow if recession continues its spiralling circle.

There is a chance repatriating employees will help businesses considering layoffs, since part of the foreign workers pay will now be spent back in Japan. Anything that can keep those dollars circulating within Japan is desirable.

.