Fujitsu Cutting Senior Officials' Pay To 'Keep Minds On The Job'

By Agence France-Presse Japanese high-tech giant Fujitsu Ltd. temporarily will cut the pay of 14,000 senior officials as a way of "keeping minds on the job" of swinging into the black in the year to March, a spokeswoman said Jan. 27. Officials ranked as section chiefs or higher at Fujitsu and its subsidiaries will face 3% to 5% wage cuts for the three months to March, the spokeswoman said. "We are reaching a crucial moment for achieving the earnings targets for the current year as our income is concentrated in the [January-March] fourth quarter," she said. The pay cuts are "meant to say, 'Let's work hard by keeping [our] minds on the job," she said. A bulk of Fujitsu's earnings come from large corporate clients and government agencies, which tend to place orders in the last quarter of the fiscal year, she said. The fiscal year ends on March 31 in Japan. Fujitsu incurred massive losses in the previous two years and is eager to return to the black in the current year. In the first half to September, Fujitsu reported a net loss of 58.56 billion yen (US$537 million) compared with a loss of 147.4 billion yen a year earlier. The company expects a net profit at 30 billion yen and recurring profit of 60 billion yen for the full year to March 2004. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004