Fighting ‘tooth-and-claw’

The plans to slash up to 1,100 jobs at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) Ltd – 22 per cent of its UK workforce – will be fought ‘tooth-and-claw’, Unite pledged today (January 27).

The union said that this week’s announcement of more than 1,000 proposed job losses comes hard on the heels of 499 redundancies announced last month. Many jobs are expected to be offshored.

The job cuts are due to happen between March and September this year. The union’s members include IT support staff and IT consultants.

The union said the impetus behind the jobs’ axe was the intention of CSC, whose clients include the NHS, BAE Systems and the Royal Bank of Scotland, to merge with competitor HPES in April.

The latest announcement follows disappointing CSC financial figures and is seen as a kneejerk reaction to safeguard CSC’s share price prior to the merger.

Only last month, UK managing director Craig Wilson told staff that the 499 redundancies would make CSC UK profitable, but this week he lost his job.

“These cuts are aimed at culling backroom staff of the many ‘household name’ clients that CSC has,” said Unite regional officer Mike Eatwell.

 
“We condemn the management for not coming clean as to the exact details on the two tranches of job cuts. The bosses need to be more transparent with those under threat of losing their jobs.

 
“You cannot remove this number of jobs and not seriously undermine frontline deliveries, whatever the product or service being provided,” he added.

“Some of the accounts affected impact on the smooth-running of the NHS and can only worsen healthcare services, given that many of them are under strain at present. This is particularly worrying.

“The NHS cannot run without effective computer support systems and the reductions – in some cases proposals to make 50 per cent redundant – could put patients’ lives in jeopardy. However, these decisions are not even made in the UK, but in America.

“As UK workers are sacked, the senior directors of CSC prepare to share out $90.5 million in stock options and other payments when the new company becomes operable on April 1. This is sickening,” Eatwell went on to say.

“Our members are very angry and our union will support all their efforts to push back on this. We will fight this tooth-and-claw.”

CSC’s main sites are at Aldershot, Banbury, Chesterfield, Chorley, Leeds, London and Preston.