HP is preparing to slash a further 1,300 British jobs and move production overseas – a decision that led one trade union to describe the company as a "butcher".
The US technology giant has announced more than 2,000 UK job losses since June. Peter Skyte, the national officer for the Unite union, said: "Despite significant profits, HP appears hell-bent on continuing to butcher its highly skilled UK workforce ... Morale is at an all-time low."
HP said the cutbacks were part of a $1bn (£629m) restructuring of its services business, confirmed in June. As part of the overhaul, it plans to axe 9,000 staff from its global workforce, while filling 6,000 new posts.
Nearly 4,000 jobs have now been shed at HP in the UK over the past two years, with the figure now set to rise to nearly 6,000 by next April, Unite said.
Peter Skyte, Unite national officer, said staff morale had hit rock bottom following "quarter after quarter" of redundancy rounds. "It is becoming impossible for the workforce to work while they have an axe continuously over their heads," he said. "Morale has slumped and it is affecting productivity."
He added: "Lax employment protection in the UK compared to other European countries means that the UK is bearing the brunt of the cuts, as it's quicker and cheaper to sack UK people and export their jobs abroad."
The world's leading personal computer manufacturer announced in June plans to cut a further 9,000 jobs worldwide as it made a $1bn (£680m) investment in fully automated data centres, although the full impact on UK jobs was not known until Monday.
Mr Skyte said: "It's not exactly a recipe for efficiency and productivity. It's been nearly five months between the worldwide announcement and the [latest] UK one."
Unite refused to rule out strikes over the latest job cuts. HP staff who are members of the PCS union and working on government contracts walked out on a two-day strike in March this year in a row over job security and pay. Mr Skyte said: "All action will be considered including industrial action."
Alex Lock, an employment partner at Beachcroft law firm, said HP was acting within the law when it came to moving the jobs offshore. "Lots of companies are basically shipping off some parts of their basic workforce functions to countries like India and Africa."
He added the trend had "accelerated" during the recession as businesses were under pressure to cut costs. "You can get people there [overseas] to do essentially the same tasks, or provide the same technical facilities, but pay them a 10th of what you'd pay them over here."
Last year HP cut more than 700 jobs in the UK as part of a worldwide reduction of 5,700 workers. The job losses were on top of the company's previous plan to reduce its global headcount by 24,600 and shrink its wage bill by 5pc.
In a statement about the latest job cuts, the company said: "HP is in consultation with the appropriate representative bodies within the UK regarding potential workforce changes which were announced June 1st, 2010. This is an initiative to transform HP's enterprise services business to benefit clients through new offerings and improved service delivery."
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Hewlett Packard denies hiring overseas staff in Britain
The Telegraph, 10/12 , Louisa Peacock
The computer giant announced on Monday that it would cut a further 1,300 staff in Britain, as part of sweeping redundancies taking place worldwide. However, Unite the union has alleged HP could be abusing migrant worker law by using the intra-company transfer (ICT) system to transfer cheaper, foreign staff to Britain to replace those workers who are losing their jobs.
Peter Skyte, national officer at Unite said: "Some of our members believe the company is playing fast and loose with the ICT system." He added: "ICTs are not supposed to lead to the displacement or replacement of UK workers, but some members allege that HP is using workers from outside the UK to do the work [of redundant workers] here. They see HP transferring workers from outside the UK to do the job."
Beachcroft law firm warned the company would have to provide a "robust defence" against potentially hundreds of claims for unfair dismissal if the ICT allegations reached a tribunal. Alex Lock, employment partner, said HP could be forced to formally dispute the claims during the 90-day consultation process which will now begin following the latest redundancy an [if HP was found guilty]," Mr Lock said.
However, an HP spokesman "unequivocally" denied the allegations. He said the union had already made the claims once before "earlier this year". He said: "These allegations have been made before and we did look into it in quite some depth. We informed the union of the outcome of that case. There is no evidence that we were not complying with the visa regulations."
By next April, HP will have cut nearly 6,000 jobs in Britain over the past two years, according to Unite.
HP Layoffs Not Taken in Stride by U.K. Union
eWeek, 10/26 , Don Sears
Hewlett-Packard employees in the United Kingdom are railing from recent layoffs that eliminated 1,300 employees. The latest workforce reduction announcement comes on top of 900 HP worker job cuts in the region. The union representing U.K.-based workers, Unite, had disparaging remarks for the recent spat of downsizing in the region.
"Despite significant profits, HP appears hell-bent on continuing to butcher its highly skilled U.K. workforce," said Unite official Peter Skyte in an Oct. 11 statement. "It is increasingly difficult for HP employees in the U.K. to plan for their futures when the threat of redundancy is continually hanging over their heads. Morale is at an all-time low."
HP posted a revenue increase of 11.4 percent and an operating profit increase of 14 percent at $3.4 billion in its last earnings report for the third quarter.
"The broad-based strength of HP's Q3 performance further demonstrates the power of our strategy and the discipline of our execution," said Cathie Lesjak, HP CFO and interim CEO in an Aug. 19 statement. "We raised our full-year outlook and are continuing to build momentum in driving out costs, investing for profitable growth and capitalizing on HP's competitive advantages in the marketplace."
The union--which represents more than 1.5 million workers in Britain and Ireland--is complaining these job cuts are in direct opposition of the U.K. government's contention that high technology jobs will fuel the job growth in the near future. The union claims there have been nearly 9,000 job cuts from HP in the U.K. in the last two years.
"On the evidence of these cuts, the U.K. government's belief that the high tech private sector will be the motor for growth and new jobs is largely a mirage," said Skyte. "Lax employment protection in the U.K. compared to other European countries means that the U.K. is bearing the brunt of cuts, as it's quicker and cheaper to sack U.K. people and export their jobs abroad."
The union is also citing that many jobs for HP have moved to Asia and other developing countries and that the work stress has increased dramatically for workers inheriting HP work from the U.K.
"Our sister union in India, Unites, is reporting that IT employees in India are complaining about the stress caused by tremendous pressure to live up to unreasonable targets and deadlines," said Skyte.
In response to Unite's complaints, HP told Network World the job cuts were part of a planned workforce reduction effort announced in June to help streamline and boost the company's enterprise business.
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