HP Strikes Again

Not too long ago, an employee union of Hewlett-Packard, the UK Unite union, voted to go on strike because of alleged foul ways that the company had used to turn a blind eye when it came to paying certain wages or bonuses. Not even one month after, the situation seems to have gotten worse. This time, it seems that the Unite members involved are slightly more driven, already threatening to halt production by organizing a series of walkouts.

The walkout will supposedly take place on December 7 and will involve 100 staff members, on the grounds that HP's decision to transfer 150 workers to HP CDS, a subsidiary company, is the enterprise's way of "taking advantage of weaknesses in current employment legislation to remove pay and pension benefits, including a performance bonus scheme worth up to £2,000 and the final salary pension scheme."

"The members have had an irreplaceable pension benefit removed by a cash rich employer when they had every opportunity to allow it to continue. To add insult to injury, they have also removed our members’ contractual bonus arrangements, resulting in a further cut in wages.” said Unite south west regional officer Andy McDowall. "This dispute would be relatively easy to resolve, if HP would agree to sit down and talk with us. We urge them to return to the negotiating table."

HP previously said that it would try to have direct talks with the Unite members in order to alleviate the situation without any major actions. However, whether sufficient talks occurred or not, the discontent staff will walk out on December 7 as planned. The Unite members also added to their protest the demand that they not be required to do overtime work (they will work to rule starting with 4 January). Members from the Department of Work and pensions contracts from HP (the former EDS) will also go on strike on December 10, and two further strikes are scheduled for January and February, which will be two-day and five-day long respectively unless the situation is resolved by then.

HP has reaffirmed the fact that customers will not suffer from these setbacks.