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Further action in HP Enterprise services

PCS members working for HP Enterprises Services are taking further strike action on 29 and 30 March and 6 and 7 April.

HP Enterprise staff previously worked for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) before it was taken over by Hewlett Packard. Our members in HP Enterprise provide IT support to civil servants in DWP and MOD, as well as working on some commercial accounts for their employer.

Our members maintain and repair the IT systems that operate all of the benefits paid by DWP and MoD, including pensions, child benefit, war pensions, emergency benefit payments and the Winter Fuel payments to pensioners. Our members also process giros and other payments.
 
Our members are seeking:
 
  • Fair Pay- HP has imposed a pay freeze on all staff. Some PCS members in HP earn £13,000 per year, most of our members earn less than £22,000. Our members have helped HP declare a profit of $7.7 billion in 2009. Their chief executive, Mark Hurd, enjoyed a salary and benefits package worth $24.2 million last year.
  • Job Security – HP has cut over 1,000 jobs in the UK since it acquired EDS. Our members are seeking a guarantee on jobs and an agreement that any further cuts are made without resort to compulsory redundancies. We are also seeking assurances about the future of sites in some of the poorest communities in the UK.
  • Collective bargaining rights – PCS represents ex-civil servants who previously worked for DWP and MoD. However, an increasing part of our membership are staff on standard contracts that have never been in the civil service. We also represent agency workers predominantly from Kelly Services. As part of our claim we are seeking collective bargaining rights for all HP Staff on central Government contracts where our members choose to opt in for collective bargaining. HP are aggressively resisting this.
Our members in the private sector face the same issues as in the civil service- attacks on their jobs, endemic low pay, pay freezes and the threat of job cuts and site closures.
 
The HP dispute is an pivotal one for our Union in the private sector. Not only is it important because our members deserve fair pay and job security from their extremely profitable employer but because this dispute has wider implications. HP want to prevent PCS organising and bargaining for workers on standard contracts.

Please send messages of support to commercialsec@pcs.org.uk