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IBM to UK staff: Get ready for another game of musical chairs

Redundancy axes loom over Global Tech Services workers

Exclusive IBM is about to fling another bunch of Technical Services Support staffers down the redundancy chute, internal documents leaked to The Register reveal.

In a letter to permanent employees in UK and Ireland, Paul Simmonds, director of TSS, part of Global Technology Services, confirmed the formation of yet another Employee Consultation Committee.

“The ECC will consist of both management and employee representatives. The purpose of the ECC will be to engage in employee consultation to discuss the proposals for the organisation to meet its business objectives,” he stated in the missive.

Dialogue between Big Blue and the committee formally started today and is expected to continue for 30 days.

IBM does not recognise any union in the UK, so staff will use the ECC to ask questions and voice concerns. The extent of the redundancies was not mentioned in the document seen by El Reg.

The last redundancy programme at TSS came in September when IBM resolved to slash costs to offset the loss of an ATM maintenance contract with Produban, Grupo Santander’s technology arm, but layoffs were also made throughout the year.

IBM wants roughly 80 per cent of its services personnel to be based in relatively low cost labour locations by the end of this year, a leaked document stated last year, as we exclusively revealed.

It is now 20 quarters since IBM last reported revenue growth and so staff are again preparing for another year of change, the only constant at the company.

In another move El Reg exclusively revealed last month, IBM is also clamping down on remote workers across the organisation.

The firm insisted staff work in one of six main locations across the US "shoulder to shoulder" with their colleagues or simply find alternative employment. Nice.

We are told this is happening in the US first, where real estate savings are more material, but UK staffers have yet to be informed of any local moves, insiders told us. ®

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