HP to cut over 3,000 UK jobs

Source: Exec Digital UK

Date :09/10/2008 09:53:15

Global software giant Hewlett-Packard has announced that 3,378 workers will be made redundant at newly-acquired EDS.

EDS currently has around 15,000 staff across 200 different sites in the UK. HP acquired the Texas-based company in August of this year, paying over a 25 percent premium for the company.

Unions expected some job losses as the two companies integrated, but were shocked that the company planned to cut over 20 percent of positions over two years. "Our worst fears have been confirmed,” said Jim Hanson, Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union’s National Officer for EDS. “We feared 3,000 job losses for the UK, and the figure is even higher … It is disappointing that these figures have been made public before we have discussed how they have been arrived at."

HP said in a statement that it would decide where to make the cuts "based on local legal requirements and consultations with the HP and EDS works councils and employee representatives …Where possible we will redeploy impacted individuals."

PCS has warned that, as EDS is responsible for many computerised government

systems, sectors such as the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office, prison services

and pensions could be hit. "It’s not just jobs that are at risk, but the delivery of public services that rely on IT services provided by the former EDS,” said General Secretary of the PCS Mark Serwotka.