Over 200 jobs are to go from multinational Hewlett-Packard's Irish operations over the next two years, the company said yesterday. Barry O'Halloran reports.
Hewlett-Packard issued a statement saying that 204 positions in Ireland would be "affected" by the computer and printer manufacturer's plans to cut jobs across the board over its next two fiscal years.
Its current financial year ends on October 31st. Thus the jobs will be lost between next month and October 2007.
The group employs 4,000 people in operations in Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Kildare.
The job losses will be part of a major overhaul of its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations that will lead to 5,900 jobs losses throughout the division.
Its recently-appointed chief executive officer, Mark Hurd, signalled the shake-up in July. Overall, the number of workers in its operations across the globe will be reduced by 14,500. The group's total workforce is 150,000.
Mr Hurd is attempting to boost the group's competitiveness in the computer and printer markets, where margins have been falling for the last five years. The cuts are aimed at saving $1.9 billion (€1.6 million) a year.
In its statement yesterday, the company indicated that many of those facing redundancy in Ireland would have the option of redeployment within the group or being hired into unspecified "new business areas".
The group said that it was continuing to hire skilled engineers and other professionals. "HP will also look to retrain or redeploy existing employees to ensure continued growth of its business in Ireland," the statement said.
"HP believes that these factors, combined with natural attrition, will help to reduce the effect of the restructuring plan," the statement added.
Reacting to the news, a spokeswoman for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, said that development agency IDA Ireland would continue to work with the company with a view to winning additional investment for the Republic.
She added that the Minister understood that on the scale of the lay-offs in Europe as a whole, the job losses in the State would be minimal.
The group is facing pressure from the French government over its plans to lay off 1,240 jobs in that country.
Its labour relations minister, Gerard Larcher is to meet the head of HP's European operations, Franceso Serafini, on Monday.
The group has also announced plans to cut a almost 2,500 jobs in Britain and Germany, 968 in the former and 1,500 in the latter. In Germany, the group is cutting one in every six jobs.
HP has a number of operations here, including manufacturing of ink jets for its printers, sales and marketing, customer support, equipment leasing for EMEA, and HP International Bank.
The group embarked on a similar round of global job cuts in May 2002 under its then-chief executive, Carly Fiorina. Those cuts were designed to offset the worst effects of the technology downturn that hit in the early years of the decade.
