HP France to axe 5,900 jobs; unions angered |
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Tue, 13 Sep 2005 11:05
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PARIS: It appears like Ms Fiorina’s legacy continues to haunt Hewlett-Packard. The company yesterday told European unions it would shed about 5,900 jobs across its Europe operations as part of a worldwide restructuring drive announced in July.
Its facilities in France employing about 4,800 would downsize by 1,240. HP said the job cuts were necessary in order “to safeguard the future of the company”.
The job cuts are part of an earlier announced restructuring plan announced in July involving about 14,500 job losses across HP’s worldwide operations. The remaining job cuts would be announced over the next 18 months.
In the meanwhile HP workers in the UK and Germany are braced for the bad news.
HP employs about 44,000 workers across Europe, Middle East and Africa. The company’s new boss Mark Hurd had announced the layoffs in July as the first strategic move to “re-sculpt the company”. One of the many things scrapped as part of the effort was a deal with Apple to co-market some of their products like iPod.
French unions are angered over the company’s decision to cut jobs. Deputy labour minister Gerard Larcher said he would meet HP management to discuss the layoffs while officials of the CFE-CGC union said they planned to urge all workers to strike.
The management did not specify which of its French facilities would face the job cuts. The deputy mayor of Grenoble, Michel Destot has decried the company’s decision to cut jobs.
In July, the new boss Hurd had tried to explain the planned 14,500 job cuts saying it would help the company save £1.1bn a year.
The management refused to name the other countries where its operations would cut jobs over the next year and half. The company has seen business taking a downturn ever since previous boss Ms Carly Fiorina engineered a $19 billion take over of Compaq in 2002. Currently, rivals like Dell and IBM are proving to be tough competition for this manufacturer of computers and printers.
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