In France, negociation with unions will resume November 3rd. Last meeting was September 23rd and it failed to reach any kind of agreement on how to proceed with the layoffs.
"Information from the Negotiation Commission, reconcilement of interests and social compensation plan
Dear Colleagues,
The Negotiation Commission hereby informs you of the current status of the discussions on the reconcilement of interests / social compensation plan. To date, eight exploratory talks have taken place between the management and the representatives of the General Works Council.
The demand made by the Works Councils has from the outset been that the management should present a detailed account of the grounds for operational change for the individual business units / functional areas. This information is necessary in order to be able to see whether reducing the workforce is justifiable and when and how its implementation is planned by the management.
Due to the complexity of the approximately 25 functional areas that were presented and the various approaches to the planned reduction of the workforce in the legal entities affected, the management could not supply the details as clearly as the Negotiations Committee had called for. For example, it challenged the management to break the reduction figures down for the individual sites.
What makes this more difficult is that the boundary between HP GmbH and the legal entities not represented by the General Works Council (e.g. HP EMEA GmbH) remains unclear with regard to the number of positions to be reduced. Furthermore, it was necessary to clarify the consequences pertaining to employment law, in relation to reconcilement of interests, with our legal adviser first. All of these facts are necessary in order to be able to reconcile interests and negotiate a social compensation plan.
The information is now widely available.
As the next step, the reconcilement of interests can be finalised and the negotiations on the content of the social compensation plan can begin. The purpose of the social compensation plan is to even out or mitigate economic disadvantages that are caused for employees as a consequence of operational change.
It is the interest of the Negotiations Committee to negotiate a social compensation plan based on socially acceptable key points, but to not let itself be subjected to time pressures.
So that the position of the Negotiations Committee is strengthened, we would ask you all to support the General Works Council’s petition.
Negotiation Committee of the General Works Council Willi Bötticher, Norbert Baumgartner, Werner Sczeponik, Hans Peter Flack, Karl Heinz Berndt, Manfred Friedrich
Dear Colleagues,
The General Works Council asks you to give your active support to the following demands by providing your signature, in order to strengthen the position of the Negotiations Committee during the negotiations.
The number of people that give their consent will be communicated to the management in an open letter.
Your consent is automatically registered by clicking on the Vote Button at the top left of Outlook (Yes, I agree).
The data will only be stored by the General Works Council. Please respond before 02.11.2005!
“I ask the management to play an active and creative role during the search for alternative measures in order to : * minimise the reduction of the workforce, * avoid site closures and * avoid job losses for operational reasons.
For employees that leave the company, I expect :
* an attractive compensation scheme and fair treatment.”
The General Works Council thanks you in advance for your active support."
"Workforce Reduction Situation Report Works Meeting in Böblingen / Gültstein (by Works Council Chairman, BBN)
Dear Colleagues,
We are all shocked and astonished by the high number of jobs to be cut as announced by Management on September 13.
The explanations Management has given to date have been very feeble and are by no means adequate to be able to begin negotiations.
While it is being repeatedly stressed that announcements and measures have been agreed with the Works Council and staff have the impression that everything has already been arranged with the Works Council, we would like to make it clear that we are distancing ourselves from this statement from Management.
To date, the Works Council has only exactly been informed on the number of job cuts, which every employee is aware of, and at present nothing has been arranged or agreed with us with regard to implementing these measures.
Another issue the Works Council sees in announcing such measures is an aggravation in the cultural change we have been experiencing at our company for a number of years.
How do they put it?: “Our employees are our most valuable asset” Here, we have to ask ourselves what relevance and importance such a statement has nowadays.
What would happen in my everyday life if I gave away my best asset? I would surely be faced with a situation where I would literally be “up to my neck in it.”
When we take a look at HP, our ears are still buzzing with the positive statements that were made on the basis of the very good quarterly results.
But this is precisely what is so contradictory and the root of our incomprehension of the situation.
We, as employees of HP, cannot reconcile this good news with the workforce reduction measures announced.
Employees could probably find it more comprehensible if we were in the red – but right now, black figures are to be made even blacker and it seems any measure is acceptable to make this happen – all for the benefit of the shareholders!
Management’s planned measures give the impression that the issue at hand is not only about cutting costs but primarily about showing the stock market that HP implements its plans consistently with the aim of keeping the shareholders happy.
Bringing it down to a human level, the planned measures could be compared with performing a heart transplant as soon as the first signs of cardiac arrhythmia are detected. Who would suggest such a thing? A heart transplant would probably be the very last avenue to go down.
We also think that staff dismissal should only be the very last avenue to be explored.
Management carries sole responsibility for this workforce reduction.
We believe it to be the duty of the German Management Team to fight for our jobs.
In our opinion, simply implementing workforce reduction measures as prescribed by Mark Hurd is wrong.
Management has a social responsibility to us, its staff, and we demand it meets this responsibility. We want them to put up a battle in Europe and the USA to keep jobs in Germany and revise the number of job cuts downwards.
In Germany, we have more to offer than just inflexible laws and high labor costs.
We are a center with a high level of stability and reliability; the knowledge and expertise we have, the commitment and dedication of staff and the quality of the work results can hold their own against anywhere.
Management constantly underlines that the best we can do to ensure our jobs are kept on the long term is to be committed and dedicated employees who deliver high-quality work. We have all stuck by this motto until now – and now it’s over to Management to do its bit and fight for our jobs.
The actual sense of the planned measures has yet to be made clear to us.
We doubt that cutting jobs to the extent planned and outsourcing them to other European countries or to India will result in the quality our clients expect and have also received to date.
With regard to the quality of the support processes that have already been outsourced, we would like to stress that a lot of these processes only work because HP employees feel absolutely committed to their clients and thus patch up and iron out any errors and problems in the processes by being even more dedicated and going that extra mile.
This is our message to Management – do not believe all the internal glossy slides that let on everything is going wonderfully – speak to the employees and get a first-hand report of how things are.
Benchmarks are being mentioned but we do not know where these benchmarks come from.
It is also not clear from the many benchmarks if we are really comparing same with same here.
We just keep hearing that the others – i.e. primarily DELL and IBM – are doing the same thing.
Comparisons are being made that we cannot understand. We are hearing about many other processes that have to be implemented but we do not even know these processes.
We would like to remind Management that we are the company that has the word “INVENT” in its logo. We want to be the inventors and, in our opinion, that should not just be restricted to technology but rather also incorporates creative and new approaches to managing a company and a reorganization of the corporate structure.
We demand transparency with regard to the numbers and measures! What exactly is planned, when is it planned and how is it to be implemented? These are the questions that are waiting to be answered.
We cannot imagine that there are no detailed numbers. At the meeting of the European Works Council in Brussels, Francesco Serafini spoke of “bottom-up planning.” This means that figures must be available on this level too.
Once more: we want to know the entire scope of the planning and we ask Management to provide us with all the information!
We are also aware that these measures are not the brainchild of the members of the German Management Team. However, they should also not allow themselves be demoted to simple henchmen.
We ask the following of Management: Fight for our jobs in Europe and the USA and leave no stone unturned in the effort to save jobs!
We too have a right to know how much truth is behind reports in the media that F. Serafini signaled to the government in France that the workforce reduction in France would again be reconsidered. Does this mean that the other EMEA countries will additionally have to make up for the reduced numbers for France?
Every single job counts. And in this respect, every alternative that we identify, no matter how small, should be examined seriously. We are expecting Management to talk to us and, above all, illustrate what is planned, how it is planned and where it is planned in precise detail. We have a right to know!
In our current opinion, the Works Council will not be able to prevent the job cuts but it is our objective to find socially acceptable solutions for the employees affected.
We obviously also see that we must become slim and efficient in terms of cost structures.
Solutions must be found under the following aspects:
• No site closures • Exclusion of redundancy due to business circumstances • Alternatives to workforce reduction • Attractive packages for voluntary retirement • Reduction of the planned 1500 jobs to be cut
Of course, we will negotiate with Management on all feasible scenarios and solutions; we will not, however, allow ourselves be bullied into the role of assistant.
We demand that all possible alternative solutions be examined and that Management be prepared to talk with us to reduce the number of jobs to be cut."
What’s happening locally?
13 comments:
Mark Hurd question and answer in Germany :
mmst://epic01.grenoble.hp.com/prmedia/gmbh/mark/mark_part2_51K.wmv
I think we could organize a car from Grenoble to Boeblingen to re create the link between HP emploees : Let's do the off site!!!
Systems Group layoffs taking place now 10/12-13 in Austin, Rochester and San Jose - IBM hired security guards are escorting employees off the sites.
The Lights Will Still Go On at HP
They say the "lights will still go on at HP" without me here.
I know that is true, but I wonder who will miss me?
I wonder who will miss the love I have given this company,
I wonder who will miss how much I cared about The HP Way.
I often chose to come in early, work through lunch and stay late.
I thought what I was doing was so important.
Especially when it was for customers or when it was something so new,
What we were doing would change the world.
But the times I was the most selfless, was for my co-workers who needed me.
Maybe it was to review a document, give feedback, change the code, whatever…
This is what I will miss most, knowing that I was important to my co-workers.
I will miss the lifelong friends I have made
We had so many days of meaningful work together.
We made a difference and we knew it.
We understood the power of a team.
I will miss that where ever I went in the world, I always found great HP people.
People who cared as much as I did.
People who loved our HP culture enough to keep it precious.
These are the great HP people who shared in success
And when times were tough were the first to say,
"We'll get through it together".
I will miss the picnics and the beer busts.
But mostly I will miss the managers who believed in me, who challenged me, who told me that I was a leader and important to the business.
I will miss the profit sharing checks.
Not for the money but because I knew I was a part of something so much greater than myself.
I will always remember the handshake and the "Thank you" of the general manager.
Those were some of my favorite times.
I will miss the laughter and excitement of creating new businesses and improving processes.
I will miss the serious times when customers' needs were on the line.
We were all engaged for one purpose.
It was our finest hour.
I will miss saying I helped create a great HP product.
And now will relish in how it changed the world.
I wouldn't have missed that for anything.
How proud I am to have been an HP employee.
I would have worked for free for you HP.
I loved you that much.
You should know that I cried when Bill and Dave died.
I had finally figured out what values really mean to a company's culture.
My only regret is I didn't have a chance to say thank you.
I'll take that learning with me as a final gift of all the years, of the great company Bill & Dave built.
I leave you now HP.
I am proud to have been the heart and soul of The HP Way.
I took it for granted for so many years.
I was a guardian of all that was good and meaningful in this company.
Thank you for trusting me to do the best job I could.
That's all I ever wanted to do.
In France, negociation with unions
will resume November 3rd. Last meeting was September 23rd and it failed to reach any kind of agreement on how to proceed with the layoffs.
News from Germany :
"Information from the Negotiation Commission, reconcilement of interests and social compensation plan
Dear Colleagues,
The Negotiation Commission hereby informs you of the current status of the discussions on the reconcilement of interests / social compensation plan. To date, eight exploratory talks have taken place between the management and the representatives of the General Works Council.
The demand made by the Works Councils has from the outset been that the management should present a detailed account of the grounds for operational change for the individual business units / functional areas. This information is necessary in order to be able to see whether reducing the workforce is justifiable and when and how its implementation is planned by the management.
Due to the complexity of the approximately 25 functional areas that were presented and the various approaches to the planned reduction of the workforce in the legal entities affected, the management could not supply the details as clearly as the Negotiations Committee had called for. For example, it challenged the management to break the reduction figures down for the individual sites.
What makes this more difficult is that the boundary between HP GmbH and the legal entities not represented by the General Works Council (e.g. HP EMEA GmbH) remains unclear with regard to the number of positions to be reduced. Furthermore, it was necessary to clarify the consequences pertaining to employment law, in relation to reconcilement of interests, with our legal adviser first. All of these facts are necessary in order to be able to reconcile interests and negotiate a social compensation plan.
The information is now widely available.
As the next step, the reconcilement of interests can be finalised and the negotiations on the content of the social compensation plan can begin. The purpose of the social compensation plan is to even out or mitigate economic disadvantages that are caused for employees as a consequence of operational change.
It is the interest of the Negotiations Committee to negotiate a social compensation plan based on socially acceptable key points, but to not let itself be subjected to time pressures.
So that the position of the Negotiations Committee is strengthened, we would ask you all to support the General Works Council’s petition.
Negotiation Committee of the General Works Council
Willi Bötticher, Norbert Baumgartner, Werner Sczeponik, Hans Peter Flack, Karl Heinz Berndt, Manfred Friedrich
Dear Colleagues,
The General Works Council asks you to give your active support to the following demands by providing your signature, in order to strengthen the position of the Negotiations Committee during the negotiations.
The number of people that give their consent will be communicated to the management in an open letter.
Your consent is automatically registered by clicking on the Vote Button at the top left of Outlook (Yes, I agree).
The data will only be stored by the General Works Council. Please respond before 02.11.2005!
“I ask the management to play an active and creative role during the search for alternative measures in order to :
* minimise the reduction of the workforce,
* avoid site closures and
* avoid job losses for operational reasons.
For employees that leave the company, I expect :
* an attractive compensation scheme and fair treatment.”
The General Works Council thanks you in advance for your active support."
"Workforce Reduction Situation Report Works Meeting in Böblingen / Gültstein
(by Works Council Chairman, BBN)
Dear Colleagues,
We are all shocked and astonished by the high number of jobs to be cut as announced by Management on September 13.
The explanations Management has given to date have been very feeble and are by no means adequate to be able to begin negotiations.
While it is being repeatedly stressed that announcements and measures have been agreed with the Works Council and staff have the impression that everything has already been arranged with the Works Council, we would like to make it clear that we are distancing ourselves from this statement from Management.
To date, the Works Council has only exactly been informed on the number of job cuts, which every employee is aware of, and at present nothing has been arranged or agreed with us with regard to implementing these measures.
Another issue the Works Council sees in announcing such measures is an aggravation in the cultural change we have been experiencing at our company for a number of years.
How do they put it?:
“Our employees are our most valuable asset”
Here, we have to ask ourselves what relevance and importance such a statement has nowadays.
What would happen in my everyday life if I gave away my best asset? I would surely be faced with a situation where I would literally be “up to my neck in it.”
When we take a look at HP, our ears are still buzzing with the positive statements that were made on the basis of the very good quarterly results.
But this is precisely what is so contradictory and the root of our incomprehension of the situation.
We, as employees of HP, cannot reconcile this good news with the workforce reduction measures announced.
Employees could probably find it more comprehensible if we were in the red – but right now, black figures are to be made even blacker and it seems any measure is acceptable to make this happen – all for the benefit of the shareholders!
Management’s planned measures give the impression that the issue at hand is not only about cutting costs but primarily about showing the stock market that HP implements its plans consistently with the aim of keeping the shareholders happy.
Bringing it down to a human level, the planned measures could be compared with performing a heart transplant as soon as the first signs of cardiac arrhythmia are detected. Who would suggest such a thing? A heart transplant would probably be the very last avenue to go down.
We also think that staff dismissal should only be the very last avenue to be explored.
Management carries sole responsibility for this workforce reduction.
We believe it to be the duty of the German Management Team to fight for our jobs.
In our opinion, simply implementing workforce reduction measures as prescribed by Mark Hurd is wrong.
Management has a social responsibility to us, its staff, and we demand it meets this responsibility. We want them to put up a battle in Europe and the USA to keep jobs in Germany and revise the number of job cuts downwards.
In Germany, we have more to offer than just inflexible laws and high labor costs.
We are a center with a high level of stability and reliability; the knowledge and expertise we have, the commitment and dedication of staff and the quality of the work results can hold their own against anywhere.
Management constantly underlines that the best we can do to ensure our jobs are kept on the long term is to be committed and dedicated employees who deliver high-quality work. We have all stuck by this motto until now – and now it’s over to Management to do its bit and fight for our jobs.
The actual sense of the planned measures has yet to be made clear to us.
We doubt that cutting jobs to the extent planned and outsourcing them to other European countries or to India will result in the quality our clients expect and have also received to date.
With regard to the quality of the support processes that have already been outsourced, we would like to stress that a lot of these processes only work because HP employees feel absolutely committed to their clients and thus patch up and iron out any errors and problems in the processes by being even more dedicated and going that extra mile.
This is our message to Management – do not believe all the internal glossy slides that let on everything is going wonderfully – speak to the employees and get a first-hand report of how things are.
Benchmarks are being mentioned but we do not know where these benchmarks come from.
It is also not clear from the many benchmarks if we are really comparing same with same here.
We just keep hearing that the others – i.e. primarily DELL and IBM – are doing the same thing.
Comparisons are being made that we cannot understand. We are hearing about many other processes that have to be implemented but we do not even know these processes.
We would like to remind Management that we are the company that has the word “INVENT” in its logo. We want to be the inventors and, in our opinion, that should not just be restricted to technology but rather also incorporates creative and new approaches to managing a company and a reorganization of the corporate structure.
We demand transparency with regard to the numbers and measures!
What exactly is planned, when is it planned and how is it to be implemented?
These are the questions that are waiting to be answered.
We cannot imagine that there are no detailed numbers.
At the meeting of the European Works Council in Brussels, Francesco Serafini spoke of “bottom-up planning.”
This means that figures must be available on this level too.
Once more: we want to know the entire scope of the planning and we ask Management to provide us with all the information!
We are also aware that these measures are not the brainchild of the members of the German Management Team. However, they should also not allow themselves be demoted to simple henchmen.
We ask the following of Management:
Fight for our jobs in Europe and the USA and leave no stone unturned in the effort to save jobs!
We too have a right to know how much truth is behind reports in the media that F. Serafini signaled to the government in France that the workforce reduction in France would again be reconsidered.
Does this mean that the other EMEA countries will additionally have to make up for the reduced numbers for France?
Every single job counts. And in this respect, every alternative that we identify, no matter how small, should be examined seriously. We are expecting Management to talk to us and, above all, illustrate what is planned, how it is planned and where it is planned in precise detail. We have a right to know!
In our current opinion, the Works Council will not be able to prevent the job cuts but it is our objective to find socially acceptable solutions for the employees affected.
We obviously also see that we must become slim and efficient in terms of cost structures.
Solutions must be found under the following aspects:
• No site closures
• Exclusion of redundancy due to business circumstances
• Alternatives to workforce reduction
• Attractive packages for voluntary retirement
• Reduction of the planned 1500 jobs to be cut
Of course, we will negotiate with Management on all feasible scenarios and solutions; we will not, however, allow ourselves be bullied into the role of assistant.
We demand that all possible alternative solutions be examined and that Management be prepared to talk with us to reduce the number of jobs to be cut."
This week, Denmark, Sweden, Finland countries ran into discussions around WFR...
Where do these comments originate? At least the above is 1/3 wrong and that's a fact. No WFR in one of the countries mentioned above.
HP job cuts hit factory and support staff
Where do you want to go today? India or the Czech Republic?
...
Uk job cuts
HP layoffs start to bite
WFR begins to make impact
Article
Hello German employees ?
What's happening over there ?
I have hurd one of the two HP companies is being closed ?
What happens to the employees ?
No news from germany. We still waiting for news from workers council or management ...
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