HP to cut almost 1,000 UK jobs

Hewlett-Packard is set to make redundant 934 of its UK employees as part of its plans to cut a total of 9,000 jobs worldwide.

The mass job cuts across HP’s Enterprise Services division were announced last month, with CEO Mark Hurd waxing lyrical about the benefits of ‘consolidation’.

Trade union Unite has condemned the latest round of redundancies, predicting a further 1,000 HP employees in this country will lose their jobs by the end of the year.

Peter Skyte, Unite national officer for IT and communications, said: “This is a further cull by HP of its skilled and experienced UK workforce, and follows nearly 4,000 jobs being cut over the past two years since the takeover of EDS by HP.

“This will create further insecurity and uncertainty in HP with the threat of yet more redundancies to come, and undermines the coalition government view that the private sector will fuel job growth out of the economic recession.

“The fact that the company still retains nearly 2,000 temporary staff and contractors merely adds insult to injury.”

Unite suggests that HP sites in Bracknell, Bristol, Hook, Erskine, Milton Keynes, London and Warrington will be affected.

Earlier this year, the firm narrowly avoided strikes in its Enterprise Services division in a row over job security and pay, after similar industrial action in late 2009.