Fujitsu staff clash with bosses over pay freeze

Frozen realm of Narnia IT services

Fujitsu Services employees are up in arms after the company's management announced a pay freeze.

A memo was dished out to the firm's Blighty-based workers earlier this week, in which Fujitsu's UK boss Richard Christou outlined "the need to take action now to protect our business."

He blamed the economic downturn for the company's decision to backtrack on pay reviews that were supposed to kick off on 1 April 2009.

A Fujitsu spokesman told The Register that the firm had taken "a reluctant move that is really a prudent measure."

He confirmed the annual salary review had been scrapped throughout Europe where the company, which is a subsidiary of Japanese technology giant Fujitsu Limited, employs around 21,000 staff.

"We know people will be disappointed [by the pay freeze] but we're not the first to do it, and we certainly won't be the last given the state of the economy right now," he said.

However, Fujitsu workers have reacted angrily to the company's U-turn on pay and a petition has so far been signed by over 350 disgruntled employees at the firm.

"One minute the company are saying we are on track to making a nice profit, then next, they are blaming the economic downturn and wanting to send all the cash to Japan," an anonymous source told El Reg.

We asked the Fujitsu spokesman if jobs could be under threat at the company.

"We have no intention of doing that, but equally we can't say there won't be job cuts in the future," he said.

The pay freeze is the latest blow to Fujitsu staff. Late last summer the IT services provider told workers not to expect bonuses following the firm's loss of an multi-million pound contract for the UK's NHS National Programme for IT. ®