back to article HP skims another 10% off some EDS workers' pay packets

Hewlett-Packard has confirmed its EDS employees in the US and Puerto Rico will have their base salaries cut an additional ten per cent for April 2009 only. The company told its staff late on Friday that some workers would temporarily suffer a second drop in pay to help HP execs steer the services outfit through tough economic …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Highly skilled?

    EDS?

    Nuff said...

  2. kain preacher

    Mass quiting

    The hand writing is on the wall . If you work for EDS get out while you can. That way when it collapse HO shares will go to hell the board will self destruct .

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    You've gotta pick a pocket or twooooooooooooooo, you've gotta pick a pocket or two

    Question was asked on a UK telecon today, "Is this 10% cut in the US true?"

    Much shuffling of managerial feet........"Errr.... Yes, it's a Q2 Financial balancing measure"

    Is that the new euphemism for "Theft" then?

  4. Henry Wertz Gold badge

    So can they take 10% off work?

    So, can they take 10% off work then? For 4 5-day work-weeks, that's about 2 days off in April. Or quite a few VERY extended lunch breaks...

  5. John A Blackley

    There's a downside

    Aye, there's a downside to all that free-market, to-hell-with-the-unions, American-style labour bargaining, isn't there?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Henry

    So, normal EDS working practices then?

  7. raving angry loony

    bit of a difference.

    This is the key quote: "Hurd said he was taking a 20 per cent base salary cut,". Except of course that in Hurd's case, the "base salary" only forms a small percentage of his overall pay. For the other people who are getting 10% cut, that "base salary" forms their entire pay packet.

    I guess they're doing it in the US only simply because the US system allows them to screw their workers over like that, whereas civilized countries that aren't trying hard to return to the days of slave labour tend to make such actions a little more difficult.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    I would have to say...

    thanks for my 3 day weekends in april!

    oh, and the 2 hours lunches are nice too...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    this is our thanks..

    for carrying the rest of HP to profitability last quarter. All other divisions were down 20% except for EDS, and they reward us by cutting us 15% of our pay - that must mean we're all 2nd level! And according to that logic, we should only be taking a .59% cut like Ann Livermore is. I for one can't wait until my salary increases to 820k+bonuses..

    I'm sure my mortgage company will understand I'm waiting for that and will just pay off my house completely when it happens since I won't be able to make my normal payment next month.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You could start a forest fire with the comments from this site

    http://www.damiansaunders.net/2009/02/26/commentary/hp-pay-cuts-an-unfair-act-of-economic-opportunism-and-greed/

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just you see.

    They'll be paying you in company scrip next only redeemable at the company shop.

    Seriously though, as all the US EDS staff have had their pay cut by 10% for April, if I were one of their US clients I'd be expecting a 10% discount on my April invoice .

    And does anyone know if the 5% pay cut already imposed get reflected in what gets charged to the clients?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Hahahaha

    This is great news!

    I fired 10,000 people and claim the money I saved as a bonus and use that bonus tonight on a 80 inch flat screen TV!

    Isn't greed great!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Voluntary in Europe

    Shift jobs to India then fuck over the remainder with pay cuts so that fat bastards at the top can cream off more. Do they realise this is how revolutions start?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Choices

    Really, there can only be so many choices when times are tough. Either they cut some jobs, reduce pay, or go bankrupt, which means everyone loses their jobs. If business cannot remain profitable, it fails (unless they beg/bribe the government to bail them out of course).

  15. Keith T
    Unhappy

    The EDS track record is catching up to it

    If we look at the sort of results EDS has delivered clients, we can see management's motivation. In a severe economic downturn you can't get customers by buying client managers "trips to conferences" and so on. Project results count more.

    EDS management wants to downsize staff because they don't think they will have enough billable work coming in.

    The pay cuts are attempts to avoid having to pay severance pay.

    If insufficient people choose to leave of their own accord, there will be lay-offs.

    However, in programming, the best people are the ones who have the easiest time finding new jobs.

    Which means EDS will see its talent pool eroded, more dissatisfied customers in the future, and even less work coming in.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Hahahahaha:

    No doubt the management's "special talent reward pro-gramme" shall remain in full force and fully equipped with golden parachutes to retain valuable talent (in running businesses into the ground).

    The peons will know how to compensate, I predict that 2009 will have record levels of employee theft ;-)

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Wouldn't it be funny if......

    Wouldn't it be funny if there was an advert with Mark Hurd in for EDS, like the ones for carpets and laminate flooring offering deals and savings

    "A Massive 15% off in April only, come one come all, how can you afford to miss out on such massive reductions", then Ann Livermore pops up from behind a sofa, "Did you say 15% off, where do i sign" Hurd - "Right here just sign there, there, there and (laughs) ofcourse there where it says I can roger you with a frosty mop anytime and whenever I feel like it. Congratulations on your great purchase, ensuring I have a new carpet, sofa, car and/or private jet while wiping my bumhole with $100 bills, show me the Benjamins Ann" Then Ann rips her clothes off to reveal a $100 bill bra which Hurd rips off in a frenzy and then cuts to cheesy erotica music and ends.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    It's not just pay that will be cut.

    All the EDS people I know are promising to reduce their output of work as well, it's only fair. I don't know any that are not looking for jobs with an honest employer.

  19. Kleykenb

    just say "No"

    This all sounds to me like a more elaborate strategy from HP/EDS direction aimed at getting an extra bonus before slimming down their work-force even more.

    The best way to get somewhere is not necessaryly a straight line.

    All you people really should do is say "NO" to this but you just know that you're all going to have to come in to the manager his office who will try to pursuade you one by one.

    So have you people ever heard of the word "strike" ? No ?

    Well, I suggest a 2 day worth unannounced strike so they understand why they have people working for them in the first place. Especially in the US getting fired should not bother most people, there are plenty of jobs around and you really have no reason to feel secure in the company you are in right now so let go of that idea of false security and fight for your rights.

  20. Tek-1
    Jobs Horns

    Funnily enough...

    ...this hasn't been publicised to UK EDS/HP'ers.

    No cracking emails from Joe, Ann or Bill about the 10% cut.

    What a surprise.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    One performance bonus for senior mgmt and another one for everyone else (Go, as they say, figure!)

    Thought I'd make a comment on some of the discrepancies between "them" and "us".

    If VPB (Variable Performance Bonus) is as good as senior management say it is... then why are they on PFR (Pay For Results)?

    Surely what's good for the goose is good for the gander? Apparently not.

    For any peeps wondering, PFR can pay out significantly more than VPB. VPB reaches a limit of 15% of your basic salary, but for most people is nearer 2 - 5% (and in a great number of cases, 0%. It really depends on which business unit you're in). PFR (from my experience over the years), starts at about 15% and is typically much higher.

    We're sick of being fed management speak about how good VPB is. If it's so damn good, why don't mgmt join the VPB party.

    I suspect that to be a good HP manager I'll be expected to get my peeps to sign up for a kicking. Nice! Way to go! Yay! and all that other nonsense.

    Signed,

    A sad sad sad HP employee & manager.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @Daniel jarick re: choices

    "Really, there can only be so many choices when times are tough. Either they cut some jobs, reduce pay, or go bankrupt, which means everyone loses their jobs. If business cannot remain profitable, it fails (unless they beg/bribe the government to bail them out of course)."

    Have you paid ANY attention to the situation before commenting? They are not struggling, going under, or trying to stave off bankruptcy. They're just greedy fuckers who want to keep their bonuses nice and inflated at the cost of the real workers. Time's arent tough for them, they're announcing profits and record breaking deals left right and center, the only tough times are on the poor saps working for them.

    Now don't comment with the big boys unless you do a little pre-tard research eh? There's a good lad.

    Mines the one with OH FFS on the back.

  23. John C. Bowerman
    Unhappy

    This must stop!

    My wife works for HP-EDS in the US (Pennsylvania to be specific) and she's already taken a 5% pay cut. On top of that the company has reduced heat for the Winter and has already informed the employees that there will be reduced AC in the Summer. AND hot meals are no longer available in the cafeteria. And now to read that we may be getting hit with ANOTHER pay cut? I don't care if it is only for one month, we can't keep taking hits like this and be expected to survive. And to add insult to injuy, I'm infuriated that this is happening to us while workers in other countries have to be asked permission before a pay cut can be taken. Unbelievable.

    I understand that the economy is bad all over and prices are up for everyone, but companies, manufacturers, shippers, retailers, and so on all pass their increases on to the next in line. And guess who's at the end of that line? Yep. The individual. And now, on top of our prices going up with noone to pass the increase on to, now our income is being reduced, too!

    My wife has worked for EDS for nearly 3 years and she is earning less now than the day she started.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not feeling too well

    rumour has it that there's a blue flu day being tossed around the back channels at EDS for april 15th.. but who knows rumours are rumours you know...

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Make WFR an option! we can't afford your pay cuts anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    There comes a point (and it's pretty close for some of us), that we can't make ends meet. A 5% wage decrease and other "benefit"decreases (being announced today in th UK), coupled with increases in council tax, energy bills, food prices etc etc make it a challenge. When interest rates go up, some of us will be proper buggered.

    Seriously, I'd prefer being WFRed (being made redundant ), at least I'd pay some of the mortgage off and not have to suffer the **** senior HP mgmt are trying to feed us day in day out.

    And as for John C. Bowerman (while workers in other countries have to be asked permission before a pay cut can be taken) ... do you really think we have a choice? Those not granting permission will have a fate worse than WFR or force pay cuts.

    With actions like this, I'm surprised HP isn't relocating to Bentonville.

    Mutiny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  26. Lol Whibley
    Coat

    i thought

    sony made the Emotional Doll Systems..

    /many apologies/

    mines the one with the MT in the pocket

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Put your name to it

    Let Mr Brown know, EDS/HP won't be the first or the last...

    http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/greedypaycuts/

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Grand Theft HP

    All of you get this right - as a UK employee who spent years paying in to his pension then got sold to EDS, transfered his pension into EDS, which is now under the cuts and theft of HP I feel shafted.

    So twat Hurd pays himself $42 million and then, cuts our pay by 5%, cuts our pension by 5% - which by the HP have paid fuck all into, and now they have announced, today, that we will have to pay more into our pension to maintain current accruals - so they are cutting us by even more than 5%. This smacks of Robert Maxwell!!

    HP / EDS in the UK have now streached to robbing its pension fund.

    So Finnan - former head of sales - bet u are sitting pretty with no morgages - afterall, you had years of creaming fat cat sales bonuses.

    Its funny that all the people making the financial decisions are people who dont live in reality -they have milked the system for years.

    Get yr CV's out.

    In the UK say NO NO NO to pay / pension cuts - US employees fight for your rights, lobby politicians or strike!

  29. kain preacher

    @raving angry loony

    guess they're doing it in the US only simply because the US system allows them to screw their workers over like that, whereas civilized countries that aren't trying hard to return to the days of slave labour tend to make such actions a little more difficult.

    Really , then how come this all started in the UK. You are just being a wanker . The message is loud and clear if you work for EDS you will get screwed . No mater what country you are in

  30. Soruk
    Flame

    @Lol Whibley

    I'm sure Largo could do a better job at running HP than Mark Hurd.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    HP/EDS pay-cuts are only happining in the US

    I am an american working for HP/EDS in Germany. The cuts in wages are only stateside. Internationally they are volentary, and for the HP/EDS German labor force his intentions are a joke. People are laughing at Hurd here about trying to “force” the pay cuts here. They are anchored in our contracts here and can not be altered if Mark is having a bad quarter. On the otherside he is consolidating alot of HP/EDS functions causing alot of strikes and unrest here in the european labor force. HP/EDS have just lost 3 big banking instatutions because of Hurds actions, especially outsourcing to former communist countries and India. The financial instatutions are not happy trying to understand the bad english or incompetence associated with the offshore decisions the company has pushed.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    As far as i care they can fuck off

    only reason im hanging in is my family.. im sick off this and going ASAP.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Veiled threats from managment

    The problem we have certainly where I am in the UK is that management are verbally insinuating that come the next round of CR's it will be those who dont take the pay cut who will be top of the list to go. They have a point system to get rid of you and its being 'fixed' all the time to ensure that it looks like they have drawn up the CR list fairly - just in case you go to tribunal. But its all rubbish. My manager told me in the last round that they already knew who was going before the scoring was done. Lets not forget that a lot of EDS employees in the UK are not in London or places with IT jobs - they are historically in low pay areas with high unemployment. There are a lot of frightened employees who are worried looking after their families and keeping a roof over their head. We need the unions to be more vocal , we also need MP's to get involved - lets not forget - our biggest accounts here are government and we are having trouble enough in these as it is. We need to be recruiting on these accounts not getting rid of people.

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