Fujitsu UK job cuts as staff pay the price for failures of top executives

Fujitsu staff face uncertainty as supplier targets 10% cost savings amid struggling business period, while up to 100 will be affected by HMRC contract loss.

The Japanese IT giant has seen its UK public sector business beginning to struggle amid the fallout of the Post Office scandal which it helped fuel. It has made significant UK workforce reductions in the past two years, but cuts are set to continue.

According to a source, the recent loss of the £245m HMRC Trader Support Service (TSS) contract will affect up to 100 Fujitsu workers, with TUPE transfers to its replacement supplier Netcompany and cuts expected.

Meanwhile, sources say the company has asked its COO to cut costs by 10%, which could put jobs at risk. There have already been at least 150 job cuts this year, according to one insider.

A Fujitsu spokesperson said: “As any large organisation does, we continually review our workforce to ensure we remain competitive. We are focused on ensuring Fujitsu UK is effectively resourced to deliver for our customers and drive long-term sustainable business.”

In regards to the TSS cuts, the Fujitsu spokesperson said: “While we are naturally disappointed with this decision, we will continue to work closely with HMRC to ensure a smooth transition of services.”

In January 2024, after ITV’s dramatisation of the Post Office scandal, Fujitsu set a self-imposed ban on bidding for new public sector work until the scandal public inquiry was completed. The inquiry’s main report is not expected until later this year, with no date set.   

A source told Computer Weekly that Fujitsu is not only losing business where it is the incumbent supplier, but also on bids for work it expected to win.

One source, with knowledge of the situation, said: “What’s hard to ignore is that the human cost of the cost-cutting at Fujitsu falls on those who deliver the work. Senior leaders aren’t being impacted, but the people who do the day-to-day work are being made redundant.”

The source added: “There’s little visible empathy for those losing their jobs, even though many of these decisions come from senior leadership choices driven by legal risk management and an overriding focus on avoiding admissions of liability.”

Separately, in July, Fujitsu put nearly 500 UK employees on notice of possible redundancy as it plans to cut more than 100 roles. This followed cuts in April 2024, when Fujitsu made about 100 jobs defunct in its UK sales and pre-sales teams and, months later, it made over half of its Oracle Practice team – around 60 jobs in the UK – redundant.

Read more: Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office scandal: Everything you need to know.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Fujitsu’s biggest UK government customer, has replaced a consortium led by Fujitsu on its Trader Support Service (TSS) service for Northern Ireland, worth hundreds of millions of pounds. 

The government department, which is described as Fujitsu’s UK “cash cow”, is cutting ties with Fujitsu through a datacentre services tender worth £500m designed to exit the supplier’s services. Fujitsu is also being snubbed in the private sector. In late 2024, it lost out on a contract with British Gas owner Centrica after the company’s board, fearful of reputational damage, blocked it, despite the troubled supplier being the preferred bidder.

The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting software.