A selection of HP International news for HP Workforce brought to you by CFTC HP since 2005.
October 07, 2005
HP strategy : explanations needed !
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The UK Employee Representatives strongly disagree with the proposed work-force management figure of 968 for the United Kingdom. Employees are extremely concerned with the continual erosion of UK jobs, being transferred under the banner of ‘off-shore and near-shoring’ to emerging European countries, primarily for financial reasons. The UK forum will not support UK jobs being transferred to other countries.Hp invent must look to address cost reduction more pragmatically, rather than reducing employees as a cost saving strategy. As UK representatives we request that HP senior management liaise with UK government and Scottish government ministers, whereby requesting assistance in respect to possible governmental support, and we would also recommend that UK government partner with French President Jacques Chirac in requesting EU commission support (where possible).Looking forward to the consultation process, the employee representatives will work with UK management in doing all they can to mitigate the job loses where feasibly possible;• re-evaluate the proposed outsourcing plans in order to keep UK HP employees in their Jobs•better use of internal redeployment processes•improvements in re-skilling activities of our colleagues•optimization and reduction of internal processes in order to get more focus on thereal job•give support to employees in finding alternatives inside or even outside HP andprovide enough time for redeployment•giving works council enough time and resources to help employeesOnce all aspect of mitigation are exhausted, fair and equitable severance packages for employees will be discussed, possibly utilising early retirement and voluntary enhanced schemes where possibleThe UK forum would also like to support the view of the general European Workers Council in asking the UK management to focus on new markets, products and services in order to ensure the HP UK growth path and continued employment for HP UK employees"
BRUSSELS (MarketWatch) -- European Commission officials have met with worker and management representatives from U.S. computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)" to discuss the company's plans to lay off thousands of staff in Europe, a Commission spokeswoman said Thursday.
Katharina von Schnurbein, a spokeswoman for European Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, said experts from the employment directorate had held talks with the two parties to "hear both sides of the story." ...
That's right, in Scotland, in Germany, most of the time, guys are worried about Hurd's strategy, which kill 6 000 "bad jobs" in Europe, and at the same time create a lot of "Offshored good jobs", in "low cost" countries.
One of my customer has only resigned for one year instead of 3.
He is not sure HP will be able to meet commitments.
He doesn't understand how services will be delivered with 25% people less in France and 15% less in UK.
This customer says he pays for HP qualified and motivated people, not for partners based somewhere and for partners changing all the time without understanding of its needs, history, and human relationship.
In case, HP situation change too much next year, this customer will signe directly to our partners, for same results. It will be cheaper.
On Tuesday, HP Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd will address attendees, and former Ohio Senator and astronaut John Glenn will deliver the closing remarks on Thursday.
It would be nice to have a delegation of the European Work council and of the US Union who participated in the protest march in France to be there on tuesday.
Hey, Mark is starting to look forward financial book...Business is a human adventure with politic, hope and motivation across customer and employees. It's never too late!
"Behind the clean façade, working conditions in this sector are horrendous. The industry has continuously shifted to countries that are perceived as cheaper, producing predominantly in export producing zones where labour rights and environmental issues have no priority. The industry predominantly employs young women, on wages below subsistence level. Forced overtime is endemic, and a lack of unions and barriers to organising means that the workers cannot negotiate improvements. Workers are hired on short term contracts for years, blacklisted, subjected to discriminatory application processes which examine aspects such as their family, body tattoos, sexual preferences and pregnancy. The case studies carried out by SOMO in China and the Philippines between October 2004 and January 2005 looked at suppliers of Acer and Fujitsu-Siemens, and confirmed this bleaker picture of this industry that has started to emerged in the last few years."
Two weeks ago, our CEO Mark Hurd visited with approximately 800 employees in Vancouver, Washington.
On the question of strategy, he is a little bit short :
"Mark kicked off the September 28 meeting by reinforcing the need to look at the company with a long-term lens. “I want to completely change your long-term view of HP, and move away from the theatrics of what’s transpired over the course of the past six or seven months,” he said. “Long-term I view the world very differently.
“So let’s look at 2008 and see where we’re going to spend $3.6 billion (US) on R&D,” Mark added. “What is that going to create in terms revenue? What market positions will that drive us to? How many engineers do we want to have that are creating value? Those are all fairly standard things, but, if you don’t think about them three to four years out, you don’t get an unemotional, analytical view of how the company should run.”
In California, KPFA http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=10469) has broadcasted during the Event News a report about the strike in France on last tuesday 4th october. The link above contains the whole report, but if you want only to listen the part on the french strike, it starts at 53'17" and ends at 57'43". Well, US medias are talking again about us !
Before being fired in Europe by Mark Hurd's mafia, we, HP sales, services, support and technical consultant for governement and big account could propose a deal to Dell or Fujitsu Siemens: Why not being hired by you and devolop european market for you (with customers and european governement support and opinion as a citizen and equity brand for europe). We also could do some R&D and many partnership inside European market. I think you could do a great proposition to us!!! We are able to commit!
You have no chance. … but seize it! Although the saying above was coined by the anarchy movement, it is quite fitting for the situation of IT employees. The race by all big companies to chop costs is becoming increasingly chaotic, with no end in sight to the waves of non-stop restructuring, spin-offs, outsourcing and mass layoffs, leaving angry customers and insecure staff in their wake, and forever putting to rest the notion that performance or qualifications have anything to do with job security in the IT sector. Anyone can be hit: the CEO moves in strange ways. Now HP has presented its newest "workforce balancing" model. The cuts in Germany are somewhat deeper than expected, with 1,500 people to be laid off. The less fortunate may even join the ranks of the unemployed where, after 12 months, they can make the acquaintance of Germany's notorious 'ALG II,' the secondary benefit amounting to Euro 345 a month (unless they have savings or other resources). This ill fortune could suddenly put them among the 'work-shy loafers' they have heard so much about on television. So much for the first half of our title, 'You have no chance.' And where is the opportunity we can seize? Even if there's no hope of changing the parent company's basic decision, it is now crucial for us to shape the events ahead using all means at our disposal under German law. The minimum demands of the works council and IG Metall must be as follows: 1. No one can be forced out into unemployment 2. No more sites can be shut down When these demands are cemented in an agreement, it must at least include the following conditions: 1. no layoffs 2. voluntary departures only, based on attractive terms agreed with the works council 3. attractive offers of part-time work or reduced working time 4. placements with other companies under a process managed by HP 5. HP concept to be put in place to secure all sites in the medium term Because such agreements costs money, experience shows that pressure is the only way of getting them. We are therefore calling on the works council to work with the employees, IG Metall and potential allies in the political arena and the media to build this pressure. Our HP colleagues in France has shown how it's done: their massive protests pushed HP to the top of the national agenda, and the French government has contacted the company. The following example shows that workforce involvement is the only hope for success in Germany: When the layoff figures were announced on September 13, the German chancellor's office called IG Metall to offer help. Although the offer smacked of electioneering, I called Uli Holdenried and proposed jointly contacting the chancellor's office with our co-chairman Bertold Huber to see what kind of support they could give us. Mr. Holdenried's reply said it all: His good manners do not permit him to hang up on people, he explained. However, he wasn't interested. After all, he already had an appointment with the mayor of Böblingen. Fine. We'll have to do it without the boss's help. Let's seize the chances we have in the coming weeks and months. We still have some!
Layoffs at HP – the better the figures, the deeper the cuts? HP's plans to cut 14,500 jobs worldwide may suggest to the casual observer that the company is in financial trouble. Let's look at a few key figures: Total revenues and profits showed healthy gains in the last quarter. EMEA was the most successful region, contributing 40% of total revenues. The ESS business overcame tough competition to increase sales to about $4 bn, a 20% year-on-year increase. Other areas also posted pleasing results. Profits reveal a different picture. IPG still reports the best return on sales, at 13%, whereas ESS achieved only 3.7%, incomprehensibly continuing to generate massive losses in the otherwise profitable software market. Other noteworthy figures: The balance sheet shows $13 bn in cash: an enormous war chest. Other cash reserves were used for a $3.3 bn share buy-back program in 2004, with an additional buy-back planned for 2005 All in all, a healthy company- so why the lay-offs? It's quite simple. The company is profitable, but the shareholders believe that profits are too low compared with other investments. Staff cuts (coupled with improved performance) are intended to produce $1.9 bn in savings. This puts the existence of 1500 employees in Germany and nearly 6000 in EMEA on the line. HP is cutting jobs despite good figures in order to achieve better ones. The company may succeed in reducing costs with its efforts to pit workers in western Europe against eastern Europeans hungry for a better future, but it's questionable whether the resulting internal processes will produce good customer service. Attesting to the difficulties of such offshoring initiatives are the many companies that have given up and brought the work home again. It would be interesting to know whether HP's offshoring ventures in Bratislava have really paid off. The next destination for HP is Bucharest. However, examples such as the travel expense processing center in Barcelona show that it can work. And that's fine if the people who previously did the work aren't just "let go." The drastic impact of the planned cuts is most evident in service, with 850 of 4800 current jobs in TSG (excluding CSG) slated for elimination. Margins remain high, but the customer base for service agreements keeps eroding, and tough competition and consolidation of customers' data centers make revenue growth impossible. Previous initiatives such as TSG Admin Offshoring failed to generate the necessary savings. Now delivery will be revamped as GDI (Global Delivery Implementation). Services will be "near-shored" and "offshored," with the level of specialization and complexity playing a substantial role in the decisions. The following changes are likely: • Standard telephone support, help desk functions, etc. will be reduced in Germany and moved to nearby countries where German-speaking employees are available. This will mainly effect the enormous support organizations in Ratingen and Böblingen. • The "Break Fix" service in the high-volume business will be outsourced. • The "Break Fix" service for non-high-end systems in value service may also be outsourced in the face of cost pressures. It is conceivable that HP technicians could be outsourced to a global or EMEA-wide service company. The market was expecting Mark Hurd's announcement, but the share price went up "only" in response to the offshoring plans, the job cuts and the "undoing" of Carly's decisions, and not the strategic initiatives that had fueled speculations, such as IPG outsourcing or an IBM-style sell-off of PSG. The market knows that Hurd is not a visionary in the mould of Steve Jobs ("Which HP do we want to be?"), but more of a senior accountant ("If the profits aren't increasing, then we at least have to cut costs..."). Inevitably, his main priority with the job cuts is to inflate the share price, and questions about long-term prospects and HP's identity fall by the wayside. This increases the risk that customers will be less inclined to do business with HP - which would set the scene for more job cuts. In any case, jobs that do not generate substantial value or have close customer contact are at risk. At the same time, all jobs will be "optimized." No area will be untouched by the lay-offs. If it all goes as planned, and the HP workforce does not put up a fight, then the HP figures will probably look even better in the future: a delightful prospect.
Organizing international solidarity Interview with Dr. Boy Lüthje, Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt Univ. More and more German companies in the ITC sector are moving jobs abroad to cut costs and gain access to new markets. This trend makes an increase in the number and intensity of conflicts over working conditions inevitable. ITC jobs from industrialized countries are increasingly being outsourced to low-wage countries. Will this trend continue? Yes. In Germany, however, many still believe that it is mainly simple, labor-intensive, low-tech jobs that are being moved to low-wage countries. That has not been the case for some time now. Just look at the massive export of jobs to China, for example. What makes this Chinese boom so special? Initially, the prospect of cheap production capacity prompted many brand-name manufacturers to contract out their production to China through contractors in Taiwan and the USA. In the meantime, almost all ITC companies have started pricing their products and services on the basis of "Chinese prices." But the contract manufacturers have since refined their strategy. They've learned a few things. Now they have more than just cheap manufacturing facilities. They have their own product development capacity, for example for notebooks or mobile phones. In China, a complete infrastructure has taken shape for mass production and product development with up to 80,000 employees. What are the consequences for brand-name companies? They are now intensifying their efforts to outsource highly skilled activities as well. But it's no longer a question of manufacturing as cheaply as possible. The motivation for offshoring is rapidly shifting towards the desire to penetrate new markets. China is particularly attractive to ITC companies around the world. It is a fast-growing market for ITC products, especially now, with the sales slump in Europe. China is increasingly serving as a safety valve for soaking up and selling off excess capacity of brand-name manufacturers in industrial centers. What will happen to Europe's industrial sites in the future? These developments are not only to their detriment. However, different industries will benefit to varying degrees from the offshore activities of brand-name manufacturers. The German ITC sector will continue for some time to send activities abroad, including consulting and service work, and software and design development. In mechanical engineering, by contrast, there has already been a surge in orders as a result of the increasing involvement of German companies in China. We will probably see further differentiation in that sector between western and eastern Europe, with complementary industrial structures taking shape. What will that mean for working conditions? In the future, conflicts about working conditions will be tougher and more numerous, not only in Europe, but also in other regions - even in China, as evidenced by the recent labor disputes there. The decisive question is what possibilities are available to employees to influence their working conditions. Where there are neither unions nor workplace structures to present employee interests, they will be at a serious disadvantage. This will in turn have a negative impact on working conditions elsewhere. It is therefore important to organize international solidarity. Can you give some examples of how this can be done? Unions in developed industrialized regions must intensify their efforts to support the development of union structures elsewhere, just as much in the Czech Republic and Hungary as in eastern Asia. For example, they must become more involved in key global companies such as Dell or Wal-Mart. They should also be keeping an eye on multinational corporations to ensure compliance with international standards - for example on child labor. But equally important is ensuring that these companies make a binding commitment to their social responsibilities and environmental standards, and act accordingly. A few textile companies have already done so, but such commitments are still unknown in the electronics industry. It is also necessary to exert influence on market regulations and push for fair conditions for global competition Impressum / Disclaimer
Closed ranks make us strong … … but are no consolation when people lose their jobs The Cologne office is closed! The building is locked and there is no trace of the people who once worked there. Of the 150 employees left at the end, 50 luckily got jobs at other locations, mostly in Ratingen, thanks to tough negotiations at the local level in Cologne. If they are laid off in the coming years, they will even be entitled to the terms of the agreement negotiated for the Cologne colleagues who did not find positions. However, 95 employees lost their jobs in the midst of a difficult employment market just as the situation for the unemployed in Germany became even worse through regulatory changes. These commitments of the Cologne employees and their acknowledged performance meant nothing when the company decided to take the easy way out, shutting down an entire location to avoid having to apply social criteria when reducing the workforce. About 75 employees landed immediately in a so-called transfer company, and hoped to receive sufficient training during the statutory 12 months and find an appropriate job. This, too was an outcome of the tough negotiations: the healthy financial resources for training in the transfer company. About 20 employees were laid off, and their unfair dismissal suits are still pending. We wish them our very best. Above-average severance packages will be paid out, also as a result of the tough negotiations to compensate for the social hardships. But what will be left after taxes? And what will happen when employees have to live off their severance pay when their unemployment insurance runs out, and they only qualify for the ALG II follow-up benefit when their savings fall to the level of the socalled existential minimum. Since most of the laid-off employees are between 43 and 55, it's quite obvious that there is no way to bridge the gap. HP was unwilling to negotiate pre-retirement part-time work or early retirement for the employees. The priority was to get rid of them and shut down the office to meet the target figures. And let's not forget the outrageous manner in which the company announced the closing of the Cologne office. Uli Holdenried came on St. Nick's day and informed his amazed colleagues of their fate by reading out a letter – to colleagues who were expecting the new head of HP Germany to thank them for their performance in boosting sales. It's hard to imagine the Christmas their families had. The fears of job losses caused enormous stress and, in many cases, illness. But does anyone care? Is the company bothered by what it did to these families? Nevertheless, the united stand of the employees and their support for the negotiating commission to the bitter end produced a much better result than HP's initial offer. It took a lot longer than HP imagined to shut down the office, and this gave the staff more time to look for alternatives – a few of them successfully. The time was also put to good use to save a few jobs in the company (if not in Cologne), a result not to be despised in these difficult times. However, Cologne was left to its fate by the central works council, which had nothing better to do than publicly put pressure on the local works council in Cologne to speed up the negotiations. Here we would have expected – and we needed – more solidarity to help preserve smaller offices. It' too late for that now. But the next companywide downsizing wave is already rolling. Now the HP central works council has nowhere to hide (Alexander Schneider, former Chairperson of the local works council, Cologne)
In the wake of economic upheaval and globalization, seven once-cherished beliefs surrounding the issue of employability are now nothing but myths.
Myth 1: "Hard-working employees will always find a new job." Wrong! We know plenty of hard-working people who have "fallen by the wayside" in the course of the constant reorganizations, or, after dedicating their entire career to HP.
Myth 2: "Qualified employees will always find a job" Wrong! Qualifications certainly reduce the risk of being laid off somewhat, but plenty of good engineers and successful managers are being "discarded" these days and cannot find new jobs.
Myth 3: "Loyal employees will always find a job" Wrong! Loyalty was once seen as a two-way street. It amounted to a form of calculated risk management with payoffs for both sides. However, the only benefit of longterm loyalty today is a bigger severance package.
Myth 4: "Employees who try hard will always find a job!" Wrong! When there are too few jobs to go around, then it comes down to a game of musical chairs. People are squeezed out, sometimes through "outplacement," sold to them as a "challenge," and sometimes by pushing them into self-employed status.
Myth 5: "Those who lose their jobs have only themselves to blame!" Wrong! Very few laid-off employees are actually fired for cause. The received wisdom nowadays is that they were just unlucky. Blaming individuals who suddenly find themselves on a transfer list is inaccurate, unethical, and has a massive psychological impact. Fighting this myth and its tragic effects, incidentally, is a big part of my work as a company chaplain.
Myth 6: "Unions are useful only in the car industry, if at all!" False! I deliberately joined a union as an HP employee because I wanted the best possible legal protection if conflict with the company cannot be avoided. The union people tasked with representing HP staff know the industry and the company inside out. I also saw the union as an external service provider, especially for supplying information from another viewpoint. And finally, I see my union dues as a fair return for all the salary increases I have received during 12 years with the company without having to fight for them. It's a mistake to believe that everyone is better off fighting their own battles today.
Myth 7: "Employees in this country still have it far too good!" Compared with the inhabitants of developing countries, it's of course true that we're well off. But is that a reason to push Germany down into the same league as those countries? On the contrary: we would like everyone in the world to reach our level of peace, prosperity and access to education and a good quality of life, and enjoy similar job security and safe workplaces. I can't help noticing that a small number of people who feel financially secure are urging everyone else to tighten their belts, and taking very little interest in the fate of their colleagues who are barely getting by. If these myths are no longer true, what can we believe?
I have five observations: 1. Work has become a game of chance. At the top and at the bottom, it all depends on "politics." Hard work, ability, qualifications and loyalty play a subordinate role in deciding who keeps their job and who doesn't. 2. This applies at all levels. The old HP saying, "Only managing directors and security guards can be sure of their jobs!" no longer holds true. Now literally everyone is at risk. 3. "Vitamin C" (C for 'Connections') is the only preventive medicine against being laid off. Building a good personal network is the most effective way of prolonging your stay in the company. But it's no guarantee. 4. Despite claims to the contrary, working time is being used less effectively, because the order of the day is to look busy. Employees are spending time building and maintaining their networks. At the same time, the increasingly brutal weeding out of staff is creating degrading working conditions, including excessive performance expectations, competition among employees, shortages of resources, a demeaning management style, unfair pay, uncertain employment… The next effect of these developments will be a loss of motivation and creativity, two of the "soft factors" where Germany has always excelled. 5. There is actually enough work for everyone, despite our pay levels. It's just badly distributed, with a few people doing far too much, and others getting far too little. In reality, wage costs now play a smaller role in the cost of producing and marketing products, thanks to massive productivity gains. The explosion in salaries and subsequent decline is actually the result of the periodic gold rush phases in the IT industry. Admittedly, payroll taxes in our country are extremely high. However, this is at least partly due to various unrelated costs being covered through the social system because these taxes are easy to administer and collect. And where is the way out? I see two possible types of solutions: 1. We will have no choice but to share work. We can deliberately choose to work less, with the loss of income more than offset by the gain in leisure time, which will benefit our health, personal life, creativity and meaningful living. We will have to make adjustments by ceasing to optimize just one factor – money – at the expense of everything else. After all, our quality of life is a product of six factors: Quality of life = Time • Money • Health * Relationships • Ideas • Meaning It vanishes whenever one of these factors approaches zero. We must adjust all six to keep our quality of life at a high level. And we should bear in mind that our quality of life also suffers greatly when we no longer see any sense in our work. Our constant gains in productivity, boosted by technology, will become an 'enabler of poverty' - initially in other countries, and later here. We should therefore take Dave Packard's dictum to heart: The company must continually ask itself what positive impact its inventions will have on the welfare of humanity. 2. We must make more use of the return on capital for the common good of all countries. For example, we could join the grassroots movement Attac in demanding a world-wide tax on financial market transactions. This would take some air out of the gigantic speculative bubble without bursting it, and the "air" thus released would serve the nearly-forgotten common good. As a final thought, permit me to quote the German poet Paul Ernst (1866 - 1933): "People today believe that work has to be planned so as to generate as much income as possible. But that is a false belief. We have to plan our work to make people happy" Walter Wedl, company chaplain, Böblingen
We should therefore take Dave Packard's dictum to heart: The company must continually ask itself what positive impact its inventions will have on the welfare of humanity.
As a final thought, permit me to quote the German poet Paul Ernst (1866 - 1933): "People today believe that work has to be planned so as to generate as much income as possible. But that is a false belief. We have to plan our work to make people happy"
About comment 1:51 PM and 1:53 PM, of course you say that to Mark Hurd and the board. How could you think about welfare of humanity when you are losing your job?!
This iste is like a gathering of politicians. The speechees are so long, that not too many people is willing to go through them... even if there is some sense in them. Try to make it a bit shorter and get to to point.
Quoting some ancient sayings is very boring. zzzzz.... "In the long run we all will be dead".
Message from Louie Rocha, President CWA local 9423 AFL-CIO, California San Jose - Silicon Valley
Congratulations on a most successful day of action in France on October 4th! It was an honor to take part and on behalf of the Communications Workers of America, I extend our committment to this common struggle for economic and social justice at Hewlett-Packard. Solidarity Forever! Louis H. Rocha Jr.
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. has offered to limit the scope of its planned job cuts in France in exchange for more flexibility on the 35-hour week.
MARKETWATCH TOP NEWS Chief Executive Patrick Starck said that if the government accepted a waiver of the country's 35-hour laws passed in 2000, the company could cut fewer jobs than the 1,240 initially announced.
HP's job cuts are part of a European restructuring that calls for 6,000 layoffs by 2008.
"By the renegotiation of this agreement, we will even be able to create new posts," Starck said, calling the 35-hour working week a "competitive disadvantage," according to AFX News.
A spokeswoman for the company claimed that the renegotiation of the current agreement on the RTT, or reduction of working hours, would help Hewlett-Packard improve its competitiveness.
HP employees must currently work 206 days a year once holidays, weekends and RTT have been deducted, meaning they enjoy approximately nine weeks off annually. The company claims most of its competitors are at 217 days.
"They were probably too generous when they originally negotiated the agreement in 1999. Now they see that it's hurting their ability to compete and they want to renegotiate," said Emmanuel Ferry, chief economist at BNP Paribas.
Trend for more flexibility gathering steam
HP's approach may appear less than diplomatic, but its timing is right. Several other European countries are currently engaged in a review of their approach to working time and productivity.
"The Germans are rethinking the reduction of the working week, which means that France will have to do the same. The trend is there," Ferry said.
France's statutory working week was reduced to 35 hours from 39 for all companies employing over 20 people in 2000. The thinking at the time was that the change would help reduce unemployment.
Economists, however, were never big fans of the shorter work week. They argue that not only did the initiative fail to create jobs, but it dramatically reduced French companies' ability to compete with more flexible European rivals, such as those in the U.K.
Officially though, the French deny that the 35-hour week has hurt business. The national statistics agency Insee said last June that the law created 350,000 jobs between 1998 and 2002, and had no negative impact. However, the figure fell short of the 600,000 new jobs that the law's drafters had expected it to create.
The 35-hour week, according to Insee, "appeared to have had no negative effects on business" and made possible productivity gains of 4.0-5.0% in the period under study. Insee noted that 5% of the workers surveyed found that the shorter work week constituted "an improvement in daily life."
Stagnating unemployment and mounting complaints from companies, however, have recently forced the government to modify the law.
As a consequence, workers who want to do more than 35 hours a week for additional money are now allowed to. But the decision rests with the employees, not the employer.
"Nothing is imposed, everything is proposed," Ferry said.
It may be too little too late, but these modifications, however small, still show that France is coming to terms with the idea that it must be more flexible if it's to preserve some appeal with large companies.
"All European countries are in competition at the social and fiscal level when trying to draw the favors of large firms. France is at an advanced stage of deindustrialization. For the trend to slowdown, we must boost innovation and introduce more flexibility," Ferry said.
Some are less reluctant to mince their words. Maurice Lévy, the head of media giant Publicis
"The final straw has to be the absurd decision to introduce the 35-hour working week when we were told repeatedly that we could work less and earn more. How on earth in this context can we expect the same French people to accept necessary reforms?" he said.
Hewlett-Packard is preparing to open a research laboratory in China later this year with a focus on computer security and services among other projects, according to an HP Labs executive.
The plant is expected to complement six other HP Lab sites, including Palo Alto, Calif.; Cambridge, Mass.; Bristol, England; Haifa, Israel; Tokyo, Japan; and Bangalore, India.
"This plant along with the one in Bangalore will help us serve our next billion customers," HP Labs Associate Director Howard Taub revealed Wednesday during a meeting with CNET News.com reporters at HP's Palo Alto facility.
Specific details of the location, size of the building as well as the staffing levels are being reserved for a later date, Taub said.
HP Labs currently employs about 600 worldwide. HP supports facilities in areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shenzhen, and Jiangsu. Each one has its specialty.
For example, the Palo Alto Lab has been doing work with microprocessors on a nanometer scale the company says could one day replace current transistor technology. HP's plant in Israel is home to several imaging and printing technologies and is home to data compression technology co-inventor Abraham Lempel. Researchers at HP Labs Bangalore are currently experimenting with a portable photo printer and a solar cell for power to travel to towns that have no electricity but may need photos for passports or other identification purposes, Taub said.
In the Asia Pacific region HP conducts research and development out of China, Singapore, India and Japan in the areas of networking products, software and mobile, general office, and wide-format printing categories.
While an executive team for HP Labs in China has yet to be publicly announced, a people search on HP's Web site found Wenbo Mao named as a principal engineer for HP Labs China. Mao recently sat as a technical contributor to the trusted systems lab at HP Labs in Bristol. He is also the author of a book on modern cryptography and focuses on computer security, formal methods, computational grids and trusted computing.
Similar to IBM, Intel, Cisco Systems and other technology-related companies, HP has notched out its presence in China during the past 10 years.
Recently, HP has announced plans to establish 1,000 retail outlets in 100 major cities in China to better compete with local favorite Lenovo and Dell.
In 2004, HP announced a $23 million development project in Beijing to build its Linux business in China. The addition of a seventh HP Labs facility addresses a fundamental shift in the Lab's function, Taub said. While the first 30 years helped bring forward innovations such as the HP 35--the company first pocket scientific calculator--and thermal inkjet technology, the lab has aligned itself closer with HP's business units in the past few years.
"This was most evident in the transition from (former HP CEO) Lou Platt to (former HP CEO) Carly Fiorina," Taub said. "HP Labs was funded by the business units and they always wanted to know what we were working on. From the outside, it was hard for them to understand the structure and they would ask us why we needed several color scientists on certain projects. When Carly took over, she changed that back and now we come up with ideas and work on mini business plans to help carry the company forward."
Respondents in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore blamed staff poaching as the primary factor affecting their staff turnover rate, though employees in China are mainly leaving their jobs because of limited career progression.
Companies in the four countries named staff recruitment and retention as the top two human resource challenges for the year ahead. Across the four markets, 33 percent of respondents indicated that hiring was the most pressing issue, while 31 percent chose staff retention as their biggest challenge. The latter was more significant for Hong Kong, Japanese and Singapore markets.
33 comments:
The UK Employee Representatives strongly disagree with the proposed work-force management figure of 968 for the United Kingdom. Employees are extremely concerned with the continual erosion of UK jobs, being transferred under the banner of ‘off-shore and near-shoring’ to emerging European countries, primarily for financial reasons. The UK forum will not support UK jobs being transferred to other countries.Hp invent must look to address cost reduction more pragmatically, rather than reducing employees as a cost saving strategy. As UK representatives we request that HP senior management liaise with UK government and Scottish government ministers, whereby requesting assistance in respect to possible governmental support, and we would also recommend that UK government partner with French President Jacques Chirac in requesting EU commission support (where possible).Looking forward to the consultation process, the employee representatives will work with UK management in doing all they can to mitigate the job loses where feasibly possible;• re-evaluate the proposed outsourcing plans in order to keep UK HP employees in their Jobs•better use of internal redeployment processes•improvements in re-skilling activities of our colleagues•optimization and reduction of internal processes in order to get more focus on thereal job•give support to employees in finding alternatives inside or even outside HP andprovide enough time for redeployment•giving works council enough time and resources to help employeesOnce all aspect of mitigation are exhausted, fair and equitable severance packages for employees will be discussed, possibly utilising early retirement and voluntary enhanced schemes where possibleThe UK forum would also like to support the view of the general European Workers Council in asking the UK management to focus on new markets, products and services in order to ensure the HP UK growth path and continued employment for HP UK employees"
Strike today in HP Milano
HP Belgium, Germany, Sweden are worried about Hurd's strategy...
BRUSSELS (MarketWatch) -- European Commission officials have met with worker and management representatives from U.S. computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)" to discuss the company's plans to lay off thousands of staff in Europe, a Commission spokeswoman said Thursday.
Katharina von Schnurbein, a spokeswoman for European Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, said experts from the employment directorate had held talks with the two parties to "hear both sides of the story." ...
That's right, in Scotland, in Germany, most of the time, guys are worried about Hurd's strategy, which kill 6 000 "bad jobs" in Europe, and at the same time create a lot of "Offshored good jobs", in "low cost" countries.
With Hurd, we could be pretty sure that next year we will have a similare job cuts round again (and again)...It never ends!
Good to see that all Europe share the same opinion about the lack of real strategy of Mark Hurd.
I am sure plenty of US employees have the same opinion.
Basics of a successfull company imply employees understand and agree on company's strategy.
This is important for all but crucial for companies based on innovative products, professional services, consulting...
I'm getting bored with Mark's strategy, will our customers be so soon ?
One of my customer has only resigned for one year instead of 3.
He is not sure HP will be able to meet commitments.
He doesn't understand how services will be delivered with 25% people less in France and 15% less in UK.
This customer says he pays for HP qualified and motivated people, not for partners based somewhere and for partners changing all the time without understanding of its needs, history, and human relationship.
In case, HP situation change too much next year, this customer will signe directly to our partners, for same results. It will be cheaper.
A collegue has seen this morning in a supermarket a vendor showing an HP printer to a customer.
The customer said : "No i will not buy an HP product because they lay off people while making profits" and he bought a printer from another brand.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051007/75581.html?.v=1
On Tuesday, HP Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd will address attendees, and former Ohio Senator and astronaut John Glenn will deliver the closing remarks on Thursday.
It would be nice to have a delegation of the European Work council and of the US Union who participated in the protest march in France to be there on tuesday.
Hey, Mark is starting to look forward financial book...Business is a human adventure with politic, hope and motivation across customer and employees.
It's never too late!
Only 7% for all of us here (Dublin), but we are closed to HP colleagues all over the world. Mark Hurd Strategy is probably a disaster.
HP's strategy explained
The other face of outsourcing :
"Behind the clean façade, working conditions in this sector are horrendous. The industry has
continuously shifted to countries that are perceived as cheaper, producing predominantly in
export producing zones where labour rights and environmental issues have no priority. The
industry predominantly employs young women, on wages below subsistence level. Forced
overtime is endemic, and a lack of unions and barriers to organising means that the workers
cannot negotiate improvements. Workers are hired on short term contracts for years,
blacklisted, subjected to discriminatory application processes which examine aspects such
as their family, body tattoos, sexual preferences and pregnancy. The case studies carried out
by SOMO in China and the Philippines between October 2004 and January 2005 looked at
suppliers of Acer and Fujitsu-Siemens, and confirmed this bleaker picture of this industry that
has started to emerged in the last few years."
complete report
Two weeks ago, our CEO Mark Hurd visited with approximately 800 employees in Vancouver, Washington.
On the question of strategy, he is a little bit short :
"Mark kicked off the September 28 meeting by reinforcing the need to look at the company with a long-term lens. “I want to completely change your long-term view of HP, and move away from the theatrics of what’s transpired over the course of the past six or seven months,” he said. “Long-term I view the world very differently.
“So let’s look at 2008 and see where we’re going to spend $3.6 billion (US) on R&D,” Mark added. “What is that going to create in terms revenue? What market positions will that drive us to? How many engineers do we want to have that are creating value? Those are all fairly standard things, but, if you don’t think about them three to four years out, you don’t get an unemotional, analytical view of how the company should run.”
And the answers are... ?
No one can be forced out
No more site can be shut down
No lay off
http://www.hp-standpunkt.de/aktuelles/i_news/Standpunkt_Okt05.pdf
IG Metall from HP Germany
In California, KPFA http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=10469) has broadcasted during the Event News a report about the strike in France on last tuesday 4th october.
The link above contains the whole report, but if you want only to listen the part on the french strike, it starts at 53'17" and ends at 57'43".
Well, US medias are talking again about us !
Before being fired in Europe by Mark Hurd's mafia, we, HP sales, services, support and technical consultant for governement and big account could propose a deal to Dell or Fujitsu Siemens: Why not being hired by you and devolop european market for you (with customers and european governement support and opinion as a citizen and equity brand for europe). We also could do some R&D and many partnership inside European market.
I think you could do a great proposition to us!!! We are able to commit!
From ig metall (geramny) :
You have no chance. … but seize it!
Although the saying above was coined by the anarchy
movement, it is quite fitting for the situation of IT
employees. The race by all big companies to chop costs
is becoming increasingly chaotic, with no end in sight to
the waves of non-stop restructuring, spin-offs, outsourcing
and mass layoffs, leaving angry customers and insecure
staff in their wake, and forever putting to rest the notion
that performance or qualifications have anything to do
with job security in the IT sector. Anyone can be hit: the
CEO moves in strange ways.
Now HP has presented its newest "workforce balancing"
model. The cuts in Germany are somewhat deeper than
expected, with 1,500 people to be laid off. The less
fortunate may even join the ranks of the unemployed
where, after 12 months, they can make the acquaintance
of Germany's notorious 'ALG II,' the secondary benefit
amounting to Euro 345 a month (unless they have
savings or other resources). This ill fortune could suddenly
put them among the 'work-shy loafers' they have heard
so much about on television.
So much for the first half of our title, 'You have no
chance.' And where is the opportunity we can seize?
Even if there's no hope of changing the parent
company's basic decision, it is now crucial for us to
shape the events ahead using all means at our disposal
under German law.
The minimum demands of the works council and IG
Metall must be as follows:
1. No one can be forced out into unemployment
2. No more sites can be shut down
When these demands are cemented in an agreement, it
must at least include the following conditions:
1. no layoffs
2. voluntary departures only, based on attractive terms
agreed with the works council
3. attractive offers of part-time work or reduced working
time
4. placements with other companies under a process
managed by HP
5. HP concept to be put in place to secure all sites in
the medium term
Because such agreements costs money, experience
shows that pressure is the only way of getting them. We
are therefore calling on the works council to work with
the employees, IG Metall and potential allies in the
political arena and the media to build this pressure. Our
HP colleagues in France has shown how it's done: their
massive protests pushed HP to the top of the national agenda, and the French government has contacted the
company.
The following example shows that workforce involvement
is the only hope for success in Germany:
When the layoff figures were announced on September
13, the German chancellor's office called IG Metall to
offer help. Although the offer smacked of electioneering,
I called Uli Holdenried and proposed jointly contacting
the chancellor's office with our co-chairman Bertold
Huber to see what kind of support they could give us.
Mr. Holdenried's reply said it all: His good manners do
not permit him to hang up on people, he explained.
However, he wasn't interested. After all, he already had
an appointment with the mayor of Böblingen.
Fine. We'll have to do it without the boss's help.
Let's seize the chances we have in the coming weeks and
months. We still have some!
Layoffs at HP – the better the figures, the
deeper the cuts?
HP's plans to cut
14,500 jobs worldwide
may suggest to the
casual observer that
the company is in
financial trouble. Let's
look at a few key
figures:
Total revenues and
profits showed healthy
gains in the last
quarter. EMEA was the
most successful region,
contributing 40% of total revenues. The ESS business
overcame tough competition to increase sales to about
$4 bn, a 20% year-on-year increase. Other areas also
posted pleasing results.
Profits reveal a different picture. IPG still reports the best
return on sales, at 13%, whereas ESS achieved only
3.7%, incomprehensibly continuing to generate massive
losses in the otherwise profitable software market.
Other noteworthy figures:
The balance sheet shows $13 bn in cash: an enormous
war chest. Other cash reserves were used for a $3.3 bn
share buy-back program in 2004, with an additional
buy-back planned for 2005
All in all, a healthy company-
so why the lay-offs?
It's quite simple. The
company is profitable, but
the shareholders believe
that profits are too low
compared with other
investments. Staff cuts
(coupled with improved
performance) are intended
to produce $1.9 bn in savings. This puts the existence of
1500 employees in Germany and nearly 6000 in EMEA
on the line. HP is cutting jobs despite good figures in
order to achieve better ones.
The company may succeed in reducing costs with its
efforts to pit workers in western Europe against eastern
Europeans hungry for a better future, but it's
questionable whether the resulting internal processes will
produce good customer service. Attesting to the
difficulties of such offshoring initiatives are the many
companies that have given up and brought the work
home again. It would be interesting to know whether
HP's offshoring ventures in Bratislava have really paid
off. The next destination for HP is Bucharest. However,
examples such as the travel expense processing center in
Barcelona show that it can work. And that's fine if the
people who previously did the work aren't just "let go."
The drastic impact of the planned cuts is most evident in
service, with 850 of 4800 current jobs in TSG (excluding
CSG) slated for elimination. Margins remain high, but
the customer base for service agreements keeps eroding,
and tough competition and consolidation of customers'
data centers make revenue growth impossible. Previous
initiatives such as TSG Admin Offshoring failed to
generate the necessary savings. Now delivery will be
revamped as GDI (Global Delivery Implementation).
Services will be "near-shored" and "offshored," with the
level of specialization and complexity playing a
substantial role in the decisions. The following changes
are likely:
• Standard telephone support, help desk functions, etc.
will be reduced in Germany and moved to nearby
countries where German-speaking employees are
available. This will mainly effect the enormous
support organizations in Ratingen and Böblingen.
• The "Break Fix" service in the high-volume business
will be outsourced.
• The "Break Fix" service for non-high-end systems in
value service may also be outsourced in the face of
cost pressures. It is conceivable that HP technicians
could be outsourced to a global or EMEA-wide
service company.
The market was expecting Mark Hurd's announcement,
but the share price went up "only" in response to the
offshoring plans, the job cuts and the "undoing" of
Carly's decisions, and not the strategic initiatives that
had fueled speculations, such as IPG outsourcing or an
IBM-style sell-off of PSG. The market knows that Hurd is
not a visionary in the mould of Steve Jobs ("Which HP do
we want to be?"), but more of a senior accountant ("If the
profits aren't increasing, then we at least have to cut
costs..."). Inevitably, his main priority with the job cuts is
to inflate the share price, and questions about long-term
prospects and HP's identity fall by the wayside. This
increases the risk that customers will be less inclined to
do business with HP - which would set the scene for
more job cuts.
In any case, jobs that do not generate substantial value
or have close customer contact are at risk. At the same
time, all jobs will be "optimized." No area will be untouched
by the lay-offs. If it all goes as planned, and the HP
workforce does not put up a fight, then the HP figures
will probably look even better in the future: a delightful prospect.
Organizing international
solidarity
Interview with Dr. Boy
Lüthje, Institute for Social
Research at Frankfurt Univ.
More and more German companies in the ITC sector
are moving jobs abroad to cut costs and gain access
to new markets. This trend makes an increase in the
number and intensity of conflicts over working
conditions inevitable.
ITC jobs from industrialized countries are increasingly
being outsourced to low-wage countries. Will this
trend continue?
Yes. In Germany, however, many still believe that it is
mainly simple, labor-intensive, low-tech jobs that are
being moved to low-wage countries. That has not been
the case for some time now. Just look at the massive
export of jobs to China, for example.
What makes this Chinese boom so special?
Initially, the prospect of cheap production
capacity prompted many brand-name
manufacturers to contract out their
production to China through contractors in
Taiwan and the USA. In the meantime,
almost all ITC companies have started
pricing their products and services on the
basis of "Chinese prices." But the contract
manufacturers have since refined their
strategy. They've learned a few things. Now
they have more than just cheap
manufacturing facilities. They have their own
product development capacity, for example
for notebooks or mobile phones. In China,
a complete infrastructure has taken shape
for mass production and product
development with up to 80,000 employees.
What are the consequences for brand-name
companies?
They are now intensifying their efforts to outsource highly
skilled activities as well. But it's no longer a question of
manufacturing as cheaply as possible. The motivation for
offshoring is rapidly shifting towards the desire to
penetrate new markets. China is particularly attractive to
ITC companies around the world. It is a fast-growing
market for ITC products, especially now, with the sales
slump in Europe. China is increasingly serving as a safety
valve for soaking up and selling off excess capacity of
brand-name manufacturers in industrial centers.
What will happen to Europe's industrial sites in the
future?
These developments are not only to their detriment.
However, different industries will benefit to varying
degrees from the offshore activities of brand-name
manufacturers. The German ITC sector will continue for
some time to send activities abroad, including consulting
and service work, and software and design development.
In mechanical engineering, by contrast, there has already
been a surge in orders as a result of the increasing
involvement of German companies in China. We will
probably see further differentiation in that sector between
western and eastern Europe, with complementary
industrial structures taking shape.
What will that mean for working conditions?
In the future, conflicts about working conditions will be
tougher and more numerous, not only in Europe, but also
in other regions - even in China, as evidenced by the
recent labor disputes there. The decisive question is what
possibilities are available to employees to influence their
working conditions. Where there are neither unions nor
workplace structures to present employee interests, they
will be at a serious disadvantage. This will in turn have a
negative impact on working conditions elsewhere. It is
therefore important to organize international solidarity.
Can you give some examples of how this can be done?
Unions in developed industrialized regions must intensify
their efforts to support the development of union structures
elsewhere, just as much in the Czech Republic and
Hungary as in eastern Asia. For example, they must
become more involved in key global companies such as
Dell or Wal-Mart. They should also be keeping an eye on
multinational corporations to ensure compliance with
international standards - for example on child labor. But
equally important is ensuring that these companies make
a binding commitment to their social responsibilities and
environmental standards, and act accordingly. A few
textile companies have already done so, but such
commitments are still unknown in the electronics industry.
It is also necessary to exert influence on market
regulations and push for fair conditions for global
competition
Impressum / Disclaimer
Closed ranks make us strong …
… but are no consolation when people lose
their jobs
The Cologne office is closed! The building is locked and
there is no trace of the people who once worked there.
Of the 150 employees left at the end, 50 luckily got jobs
at other locations, mostly in Ratingen, thanks to tough
negotiations at the local level in Cologne. If they are laid
off in the coming years, they will even be entitled to the
terms of the agreement negotiated for the Cologne
colleagues who did not find positions.
However, 95 employees lost their jobs in the midst of a
difficult employment market just as the situation for the
unemployed in Germany became even worse through
regulatory changes.
These commitments of the Cologne employees and their
acknowledged performance meant nothing when the
company decided to take the easy way out, shutting
down an entire location to avoid having to apply social
criteria when reducing the workforce. About 75
employees landed immediately in a so-called transfer
company, and hoped to receive sufficient training during
the statutory 12 months and find an appropriate job.
This, too was an outcome of the tough negotiations: the
healthy financial resources for training in the transfer
company. About 20 employees were laid off, and their
unfair dismissal suits are still pending. We wish them our
very best.
Above-average severance packages will be paid out,
also as a result of the tough negotiations to compensate
for the social hardships. But what will be left after taxes?
And what will happen when employees have to live off
their severance pay when their unemployment insurance
runs out, and they only qualify for the ALG II follow-up
benefit when their savings fall to the level of the socalled
existential minimum. Since most of the laid-off
employees are between 43 and 55, it's quite obvious
that there is no way to bridge the gap. HP was unwilling
to negotiate pre-retirement part-time work or early
retirement for the employees. The priority was to get rid
of them and shut down the office to meet the target
figures.
And let's not forget the outrageous manner in which the
company announced the closing of the Cologne office.
Uli Holdenried came on St. Nick's day and informed his
amazed colleagues of their fate by reading out a letter –
to colleagues who were expecting the new head of HP
Germany to thank them for their performance in
boosting sales. It's hard to imagine the Christmas their
families had. The fears of job losses caused enormous
stress and, in many cases, illness. But does anyone care?
Is the company bothered by what it did to these families?
Nevertheless, the united stand of the employees and
their support for the negotiating commission to the bitter
end produced a much better result than HP's initial offer.
It took a lot longer than HP imagined to shut down the
office, and this gave the staff more time to look for
alternatives – a few of them successfully. The time was
also put to good use to save a few jobs in the company
(if not in Cologne), a result not to be despised in these
difficult times.
However, Cologne was left to its fate by the central works
council, which had nothing better to do than publicly put
pressure on the local works council in Cologne to speed
up the negotiations. Here we would have expected – and
we needed – more solidarity to help preserve smaller
offices. It' too late for that now. But the next companywide
downsizing wave is already rolling. Now the HP
central works council has nowhere to hide
(Alexander Schneider, former Chairperson of the local
works council, Cologne)
7 paths to bliss?
In the wake of economic
upheaval and globalization,
seven once-cherished
beliefs surrounding the
issue of employability are
now nothing but myths.
Myth 1:
"Hard-working employees will always find a
new job."
Wrong! We know plenty of hard-working people who
have "fallen by the wayside" in the course of the constant
reorganizations, or, after dedicating their entire career to
HP.
Myth 2:
"Qualified employees will always find a job"
Wrong! Qualifications certainly reduce the risk of being
laid off somewhat, but plenty of good engineers and
successful managers are being "discarded" these days
and cannot find new jobs.
Myth 3:
"Loyal employees will always find a job"
Wrong! Loyalty was once seen as a two-way street. It
amounted to a form of calculated risk management with
payoffs for both sides. However, the only benefit of longterm
loyalty today is a bigger severance package.
Myth 4:
"Employees who try hard will always find a job!"
Wrong! When there are too few jobs to go around, then
it comes down to a game of musical chairs. People are
squeezed out, sometimes through "outplacement," sold
to them as a "challenge," and sometimes by pushing
them into self-employed status.
Myth 5:
"Those who lose their jobs have only themselves
to blame!"
Wrong! Very few laid-off employees are actually fired for
cause. The received wisdom nowadays is that they were
just unlucky. Blaming individuals who suddenly find
themselves on a transfer list is inaccurate, unethical, and
has a massive psychological impact. Fighting this myth
and its tragic effects, incidentally, is a big part of my work
as a company chaplain.
Myth 6:
"Unions are useful only in the car industry, if
at all!"
False! I deliberately joined a union as an HP employee
because I wanted the best possible legal protection if
conflict with the company cannot be avoided. The union
people tasked with representing HP staff know the
industry and the company inside out. I also saw the union
as an external service provider, especially for supplying
information from another viewpoint. And finally, I see my
union dues as a fair return for all the salary increases I
have received during 12 years with the company without
having to fight for them. It's a mistake to believe that
everyone is better off fighting their own battles today.
Myth 7:
"Employees in this country still have it far too
good!"
Compared with the inhabitants of developing countries,
it's of course true that we're well off. But is that a reason
to push Germany down into the same league as those
countries? On the contrary: we would like everyone in the
world to reach our level of peace, prosperity and access
to education and a good quality of life, and enjoy similar
job security and safe workplaces. I can't help noticing that
a small number of people who feel financially secure are
urging everyone else to tighten their belts, and taking very
little interest in the fate of their colleagues who are barely
getting by.
If these myths are no longer true, what can we believe?
I have five observations:
1. Work has become a game of chance. At the top and
at the bottom, it all depends on "politics." Hard work,
ability, qualifications and loyalty play a subordinate
role in deciding who keeps their job and who doesn't.
2. This applies at all levels. The old HP saying, "Only
managing directors and security guards can be sure
of their jobs!" no longer holds true. Now literally
everyone is at risk.
3. "Vitamin C" (C for 'Connections') is the only
preventive medicine against being laid off. Building a
good personal network is the most effective way of
prolonging your stay in the company. But it's no
guarantee.
4. Despite claims to the contrary, working time is being
used less effectively, because the order of the day is
to look busy. Employees are spending time building
and maintaining their networks. At the same time,
the increasingly brutal weeding out of staff is
creating degrading working conditions, including
excessive performance expectations, competition
among employees, shortages of resources, a
demeaning management style, unfair pay, uncertain
employment… The next effect of these developments
will be a loss of motivation and creativity, two of the
"soft factors" where Germany has always excelled.
5. There is actually enough work for everyone, despite
our pay levels. It's just badly distributed, with a few
people doing far too much, and others getting far
too little. In reality, wage costs now play a smaller
role in the cost of producing and marketing products,
thanks to massive productivity gains. The explosion in
salaries and subsequent decline is actually the result
of the periodic gold rush phases in the IT industry.
Admittedly, payroll taxes in our country are extremely
high. However, this is at least partly due to various
unrelated costs being covered through the social
system because these taxes are easy to administer
and collect.
And where is the way out? I see two possible types of
solutions:
1. We will have no choice but to share work. We can
deliberately choose to work less, with the loss of
income more than offset by the gain in leisure time,
which will benefit our health, personal life, creativity
and meaningful living. We will have to make adjustments
by ceasing to optimize just one factor –
money – at the expense of everything else. After all,
our quality of life is a product of six factors:
Quality of life = Time • Money • Health *
Relationships • Ideas • Meaning
It vanishes whenever one of these factors approaches
zero. We must adjust all six to keep our quality of life
at a high level. And we should bear in mind that our
quality of life also suffers greatly when we no longer
see any sense in our work. Our constant gains in
productivity, boosted by technology, will become an
'enabler of poverty' - initially in other countries, and
later here. We should therefore take Dave Packard's
dictum to heart: The company must continually ask
itself what positive impact its inventions will have on
the welfare of humanity.
2. We must make more use of the return on capital for
the common good of all countries. For example, we
could join the grassroots movement Attac in
demanding a world-wide tax on financial market
transactions. This would take some air out of the
gigantic speculative bubble without bursting it, and
the "air" thus released would serve the nearly-forgotten
common good.
As a final thought, permit me to quote the German poet
Paul Ernst (1866 - 1933): "People today believe that
work has to be planned so as to generate as much
income as possible. But that is a false belief. We have
to plan our work to make people happy"
Walter Wedl, company chaplain, Böblingen
As the kernell of Europe, French and German HP unions are going to fight togeither. IG Metal is the good partnership to defense HP's workers!
We should therefore take Dave Packard's
dictum to heart: The company must continually ask
itself what positive impact its inventions will have on
the welfare of humanity.
As a final thought, permit me to quote the German poet
Paul Ernst (1866 - 1933): "People today believe that
work has to be planned so as to generate as much
income as possible. But that is a false belief. We have
to plan our work to make people happy"
About comment 1:51 PM and 1:53 PM, of course you say that to Mark Hurd and the board. How could you think about welfare of humanity when you are losing your job?!
This iste is like a gathering of politicians. The speechees are so long, that not too many people is willing to go through them... even if there is some sense in them. Try to make it a bit shorter and get to to point.
Quoting some ancient sayings is very boring. zzzzz.... "In the long run we all will be dead".
Message from Louie Rocha,
President CWA local 9423 AFL-CIO, California San Jose - Silicon Valley
Congratulations on a most successful day of action in France on October 4th! It was an honor to take part and on behalf of the Communications Workers of America, I extend our committment to this common struggle for economic and social justice at Hewlett-Packard. Solidarity Forever!
Louis H. Rocha Jr.
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. has offered to limit the scope of its planned job cuts in France in exchange for more flexibility on the 35-hour week.
MARKETWATCH TOP NEWS
Chief Executive Patrick Starck said that if the government accepted a waiver of the country's 35-hour laws passed in 2000, the company could cut fewer jobs than the 1,240 initially announced.
HP's job cuts are part of a European restructuring that calls for 6,000 layoffs by 2008.
"By the renegotiation of this agreement, we will even be able to create new posts," Starck said, calling the 35-hour working week a "competitive disadvantage," according to AFX News.
A spokeswoman for the company claimed that the renegotiation of the current agreement on the RTT, or reduction of working hours, would help Hewlett-Packard improve its competitiveness.
HP employees must currently work 206 days a year once holidays, weekends and RTT have been deducted, meaning they enjoy approximately nine weeks off annually. The company claims most of its competitors are at 217 days.
"They were probably too generous when they originally negotiated the agreement in 1999. Now they see that it's hurting their ability to compete and they want to renegotiate," said Emmanuel Ferry, chief economist at BNP Paribas.
Trend for more flexibility gathering steam
HP's approach may appear less than diplomatic, but its timing is right. Several other European countries are currently engaged in a review of their approach to working time and productivity.
"The Germans are rethinking the reduction of the working week, which means that France will have to do the same. The trend is there," Ferry said.
France's statutory working week was reduced to 35 hours from 39 for all companies employing over 20 people in 2000. The thinking at the time was that the change would help reduce unemployment.
Economists, however, were never big fans of the shorter work week. They argue that not only did the initiative fail to create jobs, but it dramatically reduced French companies' ability to compete with more flexible European rivals, such as those in the U.K.
Officially though, the French deny that the 35-hour week has hurt business. The national statistics agency Insee said last June that the law created 350,000 jobs between 1998 and 2002, and had no negative impact. However, the figure fell short of the 600,000 new jobs that the law's drafters had expected it to create.
The 35-hour week, according to Insee, "appeared to have had no negative effects on business" and made possible productivity gains of 4.0-5.0% in the period under study. Insee noted that 5% of the workers surveyed found that the shorter work week constituted "an improvement in daily life."
Stagnating unemployment and mounting complaints from companies, however, have recently forced the government to modify the law.
As a consequence, workers who want to do more than 35 hours a week for additional money are now allowed to. But the decision rests with the employees, not the employer.
"Nothing is imposed, everything is proposed," Ferry said.
It may be too little too late, but these modifications, however small, still show that France is coming to terms with the idea that it must be more flexible if it's to preserve some appeal with large companies.
"All European countries are in competition at the social and fiscal level when trying to draw the favors of large firms. France is at an advanced stage of deindustrialization. For the trend to slowdown, we must boost innovation and introduce more flexibility," Ferry said.
Some are less reluctant to mince their words. Maurice Lévy, the head of media giant Publicis
"The final straw has to be the absurd decision to introduce the 35-hour working week when we were told repeatedly that we could work less and earn more. How on earth in this context can we expect the same French people to accept necessary reforms?" he said.
Hewlett-Packard is preparing to open a research laboratory in China later this year with a focus on computer security and services among other projects, according to an HP Labs executive.
The plant is expected to complement six other HP Lab sites, including Palo Alto, Calif.; Cambridge, Mass.; Bristol, England; Haifa, Israel; Tokyo, Japan; and Bangalore, India.
"This plant along with the one in Bangalore will help us serve our next billion customers," HP Labs Associate Director Howard Taub revealed Wednesday during a meeting with CNET News.com reporters at HP's Palo Alto facility.
Specific details of the location, size of the building as well as the staffing levels are being reserved for a later date, Taub said.
HP Labs currently employs about 600 worldwide. HP supports facilities in areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shenzhen, and Jiangsu. Each one has its specialty.
For example, the Palo Alto Lab has been doing work with microprocessors on a nanometer scale the company says could one day replace current transistor technology. HP's plant in Israel is home to several imaging and printing technologies and is home to data compression technology co-inventor Abraham Lempel. Researchers at HP Labs Bangalore are currently experimenting with a portable photo printer and a solar cell for power to travel to towns that have no electricity but may need photos for passports or other identification purposes, Taub said.
In the Asia Pacific region HP conducts research and development out of China, Singapore, India and Japan in the areas of networking products, software and mobile, general office, and wide-format printing categories.
While an executive team for HP Labs in China has yet to be publicly announced, a people search on HP's Web site found Wenbo Mao named as a principal engineer for HP Labs China. Mao recently sat as a technical contributor to the trusted systems lab at HP Labs in Bristol. He is also the author of a book on modern cryptography and focuses on computer security, formal methods, computational grids and trusted computing.
Similar to IBM, Intel, Cisco Systems and other technology-related companies, HP has notched out its presence in China during the past 10 years.
Recently, HP has announced plans to establish 1,000 retail outlets in 100 major cities in China to better compete with local favorite Lenovo and Dell.
In 2004, HP announced a $23 million development project in Beijing to build its Linux business in China.
The addition of a seventh HP Labs facility addresses a fundamental shift in the Lab's function, Taub said. While the first 30 years helped bring forward innovations such as the HP 35--the company first pocket scientific calculator--and thermal inkjet technology, the lab has aligned itself closer with HP's business units in the past few years.
"This was most evident in the transition from (former HP CEO) Lou Platt to (former HP CEO) Carly Fiorina," Taub said. "HP Labs was funded by the business units and they always wanted to know what we were working on. From the outside, it was hard for them to understand the structure and they would ask us why we needed several color scientists on certain projects. When Carly took over, she changed that back and now we come up with ideas and work on mini business plans to help carry the company forward."
Respondents in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore blamed staff poaching as the primary factor affecting their staff turnover rate, though employees in China are mainly leaving their jobs because of limited career progression.
Companies in the four countries named staff recruitment and retention as the top two human resource challenges for the year ahead. Across the four markets, 33 percent of respondents indicated that hiring was the most pressing issue, while 31 percent chose staff retention as their biggest challenge. The latter was more significant for Hong Kong, Japanese and Singapore markets.
Will we have Chinese courses
in our virtual classes ?
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