Fujitsu staff clash with bosses over pay freeze

the need to take action now to protect our business.

Yes, prescisly. So the upper management will ALL be taking a massive pay cut to put them more in line with the worker bees.

You have to wonder

If Mr Christou is going to be getting a payrise...

You're Kidding

You'd rather be out of work than to take a pay *freeze*?

I'm in the States and I've taken a 4% pay *cut*. Why do I tolerate it? Because I NEED A JOB.

Morons. I'd fire every name on that petition.

Dull Company

I worked as a contractor for Fujitsu and they have to be the dullest company I have ever worked for. The pay is so low for IT support staff it is no surprise they are getting upset.

To save money they should look at reducing the massive ranks of truly ineffective middle management they have built up over the years. But then would would mean making a real decision!!!

No Kidding

No-one would rather be out of work... Jeez. Only a true moron would say that!

Lets get straight to the heart of the matter. These (Fujitsu, HP/EDS) aren't companies in danger of collapse.

What we're seeing is corporate/shareholder greed taking advantage of the "economic downturn" as an excuse to screw some more cash out of the business by pay freezes/pay cuts/lay-offs.

This is one of the quickest ways for business to turn an economic difficulty into a full blown depression by taking cash out of the mass environment and putting it into the hands of the hoarding few.

Interesting Stuff

Glad I'm not directly involved in this situation. However taking Fujitsu, HP, EDS et al out of the argument for a moment this situation has probably been a long time coming. I'm sure the steam engine labour force had to go thru a similar downgrading of their pay when the industrial revolution settled out. Simple fact is that if you don't like the job you are doing - for whatever reason - you get up off your @rse and find another one. Whingeing about some god-given right to get a payrise when the world economy is in tatters is a shame. Your pay rise is someone else's cost (your customers guys!), so you want to make your company less competitive in the marketplace? Wow!

Ha

I have never met a gruntled fujitsu employee, that is all

Sob...

I feel sorry for the UK Fujitsu guys I really do, but I'd just like to point out that your compatriots in other orgs haven't had payrises or bonuses as a matter of course for a good few years now. And in the current climate, their management have decided to turn the screw and increase the rate of pay decrease even more. After all, if you don't take their deal then you're pink slipped. So there definitely are folks worse off in this industry than you. Best idea... like the poster of "The rot is setting in" suggests, is to union up. Stick it to the man before he sticks it to you!

@Interesting stuff: sorry, but I think you've got the wrong idea here. What really peeves the poor 'soldiers' in the outsourcing companies is the fundamental them and us arrangement. For example while you and your buds are being asked to take a cut of a couple of thousand dollars out of wages that ain't gone up since Saddam was in charge in Iraq, you find your CEO just pocketed tens of millions of dollars in bonus payments alone. I'll be happy to 'suck it up for the team' if, and only if, the team owner/coach (whatever analogy suits better) take the same percentage cut of their _total_ income.

@No kidding: totally agree 100% - heck, even the driver of the last cab I was in was saying the same thing when he found out who I work for. So it sure as hell ain't rocket science!

Interesting stuffed

"Simple fact is that if you don't like the job you are doing - for whatever reason - you get up off your @rse and find another one."

I don't think running away from problems is always the right answer, especially when so many companies are behaving like greedy bankers. It's also not a realistic answer for many people, especially if you've got a family and can't up sticks easily.

Fujitsu workers look like they're getting off their @rses and campaigning against it. Good for them!

I love the logic of "you want to make your company less competitive in the marketplace? Wow!". If you really believed this argument why not work for nothing? That would make your company really competitive.

If we all stop running, they can't chase us.

Pay freeze ! Ha - I'd settle for that

I have to settlte for a "temporary" 20% pay cut - as does the whole company - we hope one day that we may get it back, but I'm doubtful. For senior management this 20% is in addition to the 10% that they took at the start of the year. Yes I am in the UK as well ....

Worse still, it's not because we don't have any customers or pipeline. It's all down to cash flow. None of this year's orders (and much of last year's Q4 orders) will get paid until after April - that's how businesses work these days - 60 to 90 days staged payment. So even though the revenue stream is good enough to keep going for more than 6 months, the cash is not there.

In the meantime we still have to pay employess and their expenses that account for > 80% of overall company costs. No bank will provide us with a commercial loans at the moment - not even at the usual punitive rates - we are considered not to be big enough.

To make the company a more attractive proposition to sell, the investors wanted to fire employees to reduce costs, but they just can't get it into their thick heads that a company neds a certain number of employees to function and without employees there is no company to sell. Hence the all round cuts to reduce costs.

So it may be a case of vote with your feet, but in the meantime we are grinning and bearing it because we'd actually like to keep the jobs we have and continue to do things we're doing.