Shell plans up to 9,000 job cuts by 2022
30 September 2020
Royal Dutch Shell will shed up to 9,000 jobs as it undergoes a long-term restructuring around climate-friendly energy sources and continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic that has battered the oil industry.
Why it matters: The cuts could amount to over 10% of the company's global workforce, which was 83,000 at the end of 2019.
- Oil giants are shaking up their plans as they cut costs. For European-based majors, that means diversifying over time away from fossil fuels.
- It follows BP's June announcement that it would cut its global workforce by 10,000 jobs, or 14%.
The state of play: Shell expects to reduce its workforce by somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 jobs by the end of 2022, which it said will help achieve as much as $2.5 billion in annual savings.
- "We have to be a simpler, more streamlined, more competitive organization that is more nimble and able to respond to customers," CEO Ben van Beurden said in a statement on Wednesday.
- He added that the figure includes around 1,500 people who have "already agreed to take voluntary redundancy this year."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.