Unite condemns latest round of UK job cuts at HP
5 July 2010
Unite, the UK’s largest union, has today (Monday) condemned the
announcement by Hewlett-Packard of a further 934 jobs to be axed
out of its 16,500 UK workforce. The union is also forecasting a
further 1,000 job cuts in the UK in the next financial year, as
part of the company’s global announcement of 9,000 job cuts
world-wide.
Unite is particularly concerned about the continued off-shoring
of service jobs on the UK's knowledge economy. The union has
experienced the demise of the manufacturing sector and the creation
of a service economy and is now witnessing the off-shoring of the
very jobs that were designed to replace the manufacturing sector;
this directly conflicts with the government view that the private
sector will fuel job growth out of the economic recession.
Peter Skyte, Unite national officer for IT and communications,
said: “This is a further cull by HP of its skilled and experienced
UK workforce, and follows nearly 4,000 jobs being cut over the past
two years since the takeover of EDS by HP.
“This will create further insecurity and uncertainty in HP with
the threat of yet more redundancies to come, and undermines the
coalition government view that the private sector will fuel job
growth out of the economic recession.”
Unite is also warning the company that by cutting workplace
levels to the bone, remaining workers will be in danger of
developing stress related illnesses.
“There are also serious implications for those who remain in
their jobs and carry on service to customers and clients. Skeleton
levels of staff will lead to stressed out workers who struggle to
complete an ever increasing workload. The fact that the company
still retains nearly 2,000 temporary staff and contractors merely
adds insult to injury.” added Peter Skyte.
HP has offices throughout the UK, and the likely sites affected
include Bracknell, Bristol, Hook, Erskine, Milton Keynes, London
and Warrington.
ENDS
For further information contact Peter Skyte on 07768 931302 or
Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite Press Office on 020 7420 8914 or
07980 224761.
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