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Unite: CSC UK set for 'jobs massacre' as 1,101 heads put on chopping block

Oh, and ailing outsourcing biz hires fourth boss in two years, swaps Wilson for Wilson

Sickly outsourcing titan CSC UK is strapping another 1,101 staff to the employment catapult to be hurled out of the organisation between March and September, according to Unite the union.

In a newsletter to members - seen by us - the union claimed it was “time to fight” the pending “massacre” of jobs “across most areas of the business”, dubbed Phase 4 of the Transformation Plan (TP).

“The reason given for these cuts are the financial performance and structure of CSC. This brings the total across all the UK businesses and programmes this financial year to around 2355,” the Unite letter stated.

This translates to a workforce reduction of 22 per cent, Unite said, with 1,946 of those people leaving under the TP. Graduates and apprentices have been excluded from the redundancies.

The letter stated the latest move indicated a “massive failure” on the part of senior management - CSC has been a perennial cost cutter since CEO Mike Lawrie was hired in 2012.

“We don’t believe they can have a clue as to the massive adverse impact on the ability of the skeleton that would be left of CSC to deliver on services to the various customers that CSC employees serve. Either that or they simply are not concerned. As such Unite completely opposes these wholesale staff reductions, and are looking to our membership to take active moves to resist the job onslaught.”

No voluntary redundancies will be offered to staff and “compulsory pools rapidly produced”, Unite claimed. VR will be offered to those that fall within those pools, it said.

The whole process kicks off in March when CSC crashes into HPE’s Enterprise Services business in a spin merger that creates a new entity.

“The NewCo after CSC’s merger with HPES, will be born in fire - with mass redundancies for CSC staff,” the letter added.

The legal team at Unite are exploring options and the union said the only way to stop this “strategy of slash and burn will be industrial action”. A ballot is to be sent to members.

An insider at CSC said the company had yet to confirm to staff the existence of the latest redudancy programme.

The emergence of yet more job cuts came as CSC lined up the chiefs to run the new company, with Mike Nefkens set to be made exec veep and GM of the regions and industries, reporting to Lawrie. Other changes can be found in an SEC filing.

Lawrie has written to staff in an internal memo, seen by us, confirming planned changes in the UK that will see current boss Craig Wilson replaced by Nick Wilson, the UK head of the old HP from 2009 to 2013, who the firm then sent down under… as MD of the South Pacific region and Enterprise Services.

According to Lawrie, Wilson, the one called Craig, and UK CFO Giovanni Loria will be “stepping down from their roles effective immediately”.

“This change follows significant underperformance in the region and will provide us with an opportunity to get the region better positioned ahead of our merger with HPE ES,” he said.

Before Nick Wilson flies back to Blighty, a bunch of local execs will assume interim responsibilities: Vijay Goal will be acting regional GM and Amaranth Pai will count the beans as cover for Loria.

Wilson, the one called Nick, will be the fourth UK boss at CSC since 2014, so it is not surprising the company has struggled to build up some momentum.

The other Wilson, Craig, previously escaped the internal politics of HP UK where he ran Enterprise Services. He left to join Xchanging, which was acquired by CSC, and would have been reconnected with his ex-colleagues when the HPE ES deal closes.

The Register asked CSC for comment hours ago but have yet to hear from the PR function. ®

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