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Third time unlucky? HPE in redundancy talks with UK services staff

Volunteers, walk this way

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has told UK and Ireland Enterprise Services (ES) staff they face the axe once again – in a third round of redundancies in less than a year.

The company, which is offloading the division to CSC in the next financial year, is asking for volunteers this time unlike the previous compulsory job cuts.

In a memo to staff on 20 July, Maurice Mattholie, HPE UK and MEMA veep for IT Outsourcing, confirmed the “intent to run a formal Workforce Management programme in its Q4” from August to October.

“Following a meeting with the UKWC (Works Council) and trade unions,” he said, “it has been agreed that we will run an additional Voluntary Redundancy programme across the UK and Ireland.”

ITO - which was an area of HPE’s ES wing that was hit hard in the firm’s Q2 and Q3 this financial year - and Application Business Services are where the axe will swing.

Previously in internal documents seen by us, the UKWC made the assertion that redundancies, or the Workforce Management programme as HPE euphemistically called it, would end this month.

It is not clear how many people HPE will chop in Q4 but the more people that volunteer to leave with a cheque the fewer compulsory redundancies will made. Obviously.

In Q2, the company put 1,092 ES staff on the chopping block, then 900 in Q3. Unlike IBM, these staff did not leave on Statutory Minimum terms but the whole process has affected morale, with one insider describing it as being “a bit lower than the Mariana Trench”.

HPE sent us a statement, “These changes are part of a company-wide strategy to give Hewlett Packard Enterprise the needed workforce to be a more nimble customer and partner centric company”.

The firm is consolidating UK service centres to two, Newcastle and Erskine, and is increasing the number of service personnel in lower cost labour countries.

The ES division is merging with CSC, as revealed in May, and the deal is expected to close early next year. ®

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