Hewlett-Packard cuts 968 UK posts

HP is looking to cut jobs around the globe

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is to cut 968 jobs in the UK during the next year, as part of its worldwide restructuring drive.

HP has seven UK sites, at Bracknell, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, London, Reading and Warrington, but would not say where the jobs are to be lost.

The firm also said it would cut 5,900 jobs in total across its EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region - under the shake-up it announced on Monday.

HP employs 44,000 workers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"We did expect the UK to be impacted, following the announcement in July," an HP spokeswoman told the BBC.

Most of the UK job losses are set to go in human resources, IT and finance, and the company said it did not know how many of the redundancies would be compulsory.

It is thought Glasgow may not be too heavily affected as it is a production centre rather than an administration one.

French strike

On Monday, the US computer and IT giant said 1,240 jobs would go in France, where the firm currently employs 4,800 workers.

Unions there have now called for a one-day national strike to protest at the planned job cuts.

The action is due to take place at all HP's sites across France on Friday, with a march scheduled near its site in the south-eastern city of Grenoble, representatives of the CFDT and CGT unions said.

HP announced in July that it would cut 14,500 jobs globally over 18 months in order to save $1.9bn (£1.1bn) a year.

The cutbacks are the largest at the company since 15,000 jobs were lost in the wake of HP's $19bn acquisition of rival Compaq Computer in May 2002.

In Tuesday trade in New York, shares ended down down 0.76% or 21 cents to $27.53.