Government computer jobs are axed

Thousands of jobs working on government computer contracts are to go over the next two years.

It comes after EDS, which had contracts with departments including Work and Pensions and Defence, was taken over by Hewlett Packard last month.

HP had warned that the takeover would mean 24,000 jobs would go worldwide and have confirmed 3,378 will be in the UK.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union described it as a "huge blow" in times of economic turmoil.

Confirming the cuts, a Hewlett Packard spokesman said: "Where possible, we will redeploy impacted individuals."

The PCS union said the scale of the losses meant public services that relied on IT services were bound to be affected.

National officer Jim Hanson said: "Our worst fears have been confirmed. We feared 3,000 job losses for the UK and the figure is even higher."

General Secretary Mark Serwotka added: "This announcement creates further uncertainty with little or no detail of where the axe will fall and comes as a huge blow to the workforce in the time of economic turmoil."