Company CEO forecasts that the end is in sight for corporate restructuring
Following more than 50,000 job cuts already announced this year, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman this week announced that the hardware giant plans to cut between 25,000 and 30,000 more employees as the company prepares to split.
The split is planned for November; HP Inc. will sell personal computers and printers while HP Enterprise will sell servers, storage, software and network gear. The new round of job cuts will come from the enterprise portion of the company.
“We’ve done a significant amount of work over the past few years to take costs out and simplify processes, and these final actions will eliminate the need for any future corporate restructuring,” Whitman said at a meeting for financial analysts.
HP is reportedly trying new tactics in order to restructure its “labor pyramid” in the face of shrinking revenue. In an effort to cut costs, HP is giving employees the option to either become contract workers with no benefits or lose their jobs.
For the past seven years, the company has been cutting thousands of jobs as part of a $1 billion restructuring process. Many hourly employees in HP’s Enterprise Services unit in July were told they must either become a contract employee for Adecco, a contract agency employed by HP, or lose their jobs. The deadline to make the decision was Aug. 15.
Those who accepted the contract work reportedly lost all accrued paid time off, benefits and seniority. Those who did not, lost their jobs without severance. A source close to the situation said many chose to lose their jobs.
The global information technology company responded to the claims, saying only a “small number” of employees were affected.
