back to article 'Nearly 1,350' HP Enterprise Services staffers strike over redundancies – union

Nearly 1,350 HP Enterprise Services workers downed tools as part of multi-day industrial action in protest against the mass redundancy programme, at least according to the PCS trade union. Industrial officer Alan Brown said up to 90 per cent of the union's 1,500 HPES members went on strike on Wednesday and Thursday this week, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Enterprise

    The nice thing about enterprise staff is you have an automatic slave copy of them in a geographically remote location able to spin up and take over

    With consumer staff you have to go down to PC world and pick up whatever junk they have workign their to replace them

    1. Dave Pickles
      Coat

      Re: Enterprise

      Enterprise staff wear red tee-shirts surely?

      Mine's the one with the tricorder in the pocket.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

    This is quite common for HP, they are notorious for winning IT privatisation bids, keeping the IT contracts and sacking swathes of ex Public Sector staff after their contract protection runs out.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

      Completely understandable, seeing as if those employees had talent / ability in excess of their social and hygiene issues then they would be working in the real world, and not the public sector.....

      1. Mr_Bungle
        Facepalm

        Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

        If you don't like having a public service - NHS, Police, clean water and sewage desposal, then by all means emigrate to a failed state like Somalia. Enjoy your stay there you massive, massive twat.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

          Water and Sewage are not public sector.

          The above applies equally to IT employees in the Police and NHS. If they were any good, they would be working elsewhere for better money.....

          1. Mr_Bungle
            Stop

            Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

            Your further anonymous posting confirms how clueless you are. You think being an IT worker in the private sector automatically gifts you a dream job at 100k a year? Stupid and naive.

            PS/Civil workers being paid less is a myth, on average they are paid more. Add to this shorter working hours, better holidays, flexitime, TOIL and a pension.

            The drawbacks? Little or no overtime and you are never going to be a millionaire.

            Read this, it might help you to stop looking so stupid next time you decide to open your ignorant fucking mouth.

            http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/mar/27/public-private-sector-pay

            I worked in the private sector for many years, lining some fat fucks pocket. Bored of the greed, I accepted a PS role, got a big pay bump, and have my life back. And I can never be shit-canned like those blameless HP workers.

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

              "PS/Civil workers being paid less is a myth, on average they are paid more"

              As an average across all sectors maybe. Not in IT.

              In my extensive experience of various government / public sector organisations, the IT staff are generally a much lower quality then similar sized private sector organisations - and as you say are inherently lazy (hence no overtime / shorter working hours / long holidays) often have terrible time keeping (hence flexitime) - and earn much less as a salary (but have ludicrously generous pensions).

              The public sector attracts a certain sort of pretty useless employee that wouldn't last long in the private sector...Hence why when something beyond occupying the space between a chair and keyboard and a basic level of competency is required, they bring in consultants like me to sort out the mess.....

              "I can never be shit-canned like those blameless HP workers."

              Oh, but you can. They would just TUPE you and then make your role no longer a requirement...

              1. Mr_Bungle

                Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

                Despite the evidence you continue your anti PS tirade. Your 'extensive expirience'? Consultant?

                Don't make me laugh, as you seemingly no nothing about working in a Gov IT deparment, i suspect you are nothing more than a Salesman.

                Begging for contracts, desperate to flog the latest shiny tech. And then fucking everything up like the majority of projects outsourced to private companies.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

                  Nope - never been in sales...

                  "And then fucking everything up like the majority of projects outsourced to private companies."

                  Well we screw up a lot less than the resident employees - who simply are not capable of even the first steps of large project. The vast majority of government IT failures are because what is requested is not what is required, the cheapest bid is accepted rather than the best bid, and scope creep is constant and massive....

                  For instance there are currently about 191 government projects ongoing - of which only 4 IT projects are considered at risk of failure by the MPA (the government's project watchdog)....

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

          "emigrate to a failed state like Somalia"

          Ah - you must work in the public sector - you of course would therefore likely meet lots of Somalians:

          Somali-born migrants have the lowest employment rate among all immigrants in the UK. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show high rates of economic inactivity and unemployment amongst Somali immigrants. In the three months to June 2008, 31.4 percent of Somali men and 84.2 percent of Somali women were economically inactive

      2. Slef

        Re: HP is the reason the Public Sector fear Privatisation

        anonymous coward is such an appropriate name for a faceless twat who does not have the balls to post under his or her own name. Methinks you have mistaken your own hygiene issues for others and you have clearly demonstrated that you have no knowledge of the subject you are childishly spouting of on. In fact you are most probably sweating beating yer own todger!

  3. Erik4872

    Move or be redundant...I've heard that before

    I know this move was to win a government contract, but the idea highlights a problem we see in the US a lot lately.

    Because we basically have 50 taxing jurisdictions, states are constantly competing with each other to steal large corporations' workers and locations. Some states like Florida and Texas have no state income tax and are constantly begging businesses in New York and other high-tax states to move. I live in New York, but there are plenty of other examples, even in lower-tax states. The higher-tax states counter this with crazy local incentives like, "We'll give you free land/free power" or "you don't have to pay property tax for 10 years."

    The problem with this, in a profession like IT that isn't seen as important or central, is that corporate IT departments are being shifted around from one tax deal to another at a much higher rate than before. I've been through 2 of these moves, choosing to quit rather than move both times. (I'm the 1-in-1000 individual who would rather be unemployed than spend the summer months in Georgia, Texas or Florida.) For now, there's still plenty of opportunity in high-tax land, but one has to wonder whether we're creating a generation of transient workers.

    What's different in this case from the long-gone 60s through 80s? There were plenty of internal employee transfers from one location to another. The difference is that the company was usually worth the loyalty a worker showed it by moving their family across the country. Each time this has happened to me, I've approached this from this direction -- hating of the climate aside, what happens when this company moves me with my NY salary to GA, then fires me 2 months later and immediately forces a huge pay cut to compete on the local labor market?

    Not sure how it is in the UK, but moving is insanely expensive and time consuming, especially long-distance moves. Most people roll the costs into their mortgage and never see it, but every real estate transaction you do is at least five figures' worth of fees, costs, and expenses. That five figure figure :-) is just transactional waste -- you never get that money back unless/until you make a profit on your old place. I know people can't expect to work for the same company forever or in the same location, but it sure would be nice if companies didn't assume that all their employees have a one-bedroom apartment they can pack into a U-Haul at a moment's notice.

  4. Sir Barry

    "According to the PCS, HP is transferring those Sheffield roles to Newcastle and north of the border to Erskine to bag a multi-million pound grant from the Scottish government."

    And that is why Scottish Gov should tell HP to sod off.

    But they won't because that would be an ethical action.

  5. GaryDMN

    HP has union employees?

    Tech firms don't typically have unions, now I know why HP is in trouble.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    sad state of affairs

    This is just the tip of the iceberg. All sorts of industry standard HR practice's are being twisted by senior managers to make the numbers. The result is an atmosphere of distrust and dirty tricks. The JSA team are well known at being the best performing team in government land for HP. So good they are being replaced by cheap staff with no experience. HP doesnt understand it services, never will.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like