UK union Uniteis to ballot members
for industrial action over the planned transfer and benefit cuts
for 150 customer engineers and support staff at Hewlett-Packard
(HP) IT services.
HP plans to transfer staff to another company, HP CDS, on 1
November and strip current pay and pension benefits.
According to Unite, these benefits include a performance bonus
scheme worth up to £2,000 and a final salary pension scheme.
This is the first time HP employees in the UK have been asked to
vote on industrial action. It follows a vote for industrial action
among workers in a consultative ballot carried out earlier this
month.
Peter Skyte, Unite national officer, said Unite members have no
choice but to begin ballot for industrial action in the face of
pension and pay cuts.
"This is the latest in a
series of attacks by the company on our members' pay and
conditions, while senior executives and shareholders do very well
indeed," he said.
Unite remains willing to seek a resolution to this dispute with
HP, said Peter Skyte, but not on the basis that one employee's pay
cut results in a HP executive's pay and bonus increase.
The ballot result is expected in mid-November.
The proposed cuts come just months after
services staff of acquired firm EDS were told of a 5% cut to their
pay as part of HP's cost-cutting programme.
HP said its IT services division will implement a number of
measures to transform its businesses. This will drive efficiencies
across the company to ensure it remains competitive, HP said.
In August, HP staff already facing voluntary pay cuts as part of
the firm's cost-cutting plan, were told of plans for
further involuntarily cuts to pay and benefits.
Unite said at the time that HP employees who are not protected
by union membership "face exposure to a hurricane of cuts in pay
and conditions from an ever-more rapacious company".
Unions and the HP EDS European Works Council (EWC) have advised
staff to say no to voluntary pay cuts, but workers will have no say
on other cuts being made to their benefits.
According to the EWC at the time, HP was planning cuts to
pension plans, severance packages, annual leave, healthcare
benefits and a freeze on salaries where possible.