Union Claims Hewlett-Packard will Axe 1,124 UK Jobs

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard is to axe 1,124 jobs in the UK at the start of next year, according to trade union Unite.

The union claimed the job losses will fall across the firm's Bracknell, Sheffield and Warrington sites in the first three months of 2014. .

But HP said it had not decided where the cuts would come.

Unite said many of the employees facing redundancy "either work from home or within the organisations employing HP".

The union said the US based firm was "a long-term addict to a culture of job cuts" and argued its European manager had little autonomy.

"For the last five years HP has been addicted to a culture of job cuts in the UK to such an extent that its highly skilled workforce has little faith in the way the company is being managed and will be going forward," said Ian Tonks, Unite national officer.

He added: "Unite will be doing everything possible to mitigate these job losses which are a hammer blow to the UK's IT sector and very distressing for employees in the run-up to Christmas."

In total, the union claimed 618 jobs could be lost at the firm's Bracknell hub, although the employees work at multiple locations; 483 will go at Warrington; and 23 at Sheffield.

A spokesperson for HP said: "The proposed UK workforce management plan is part of HP's global multi-year productivity initiative that was announced on 23 May, 2012, and updated at its Securities Analysts Meeting on 9 October, 2013, to address current market and business pressures in support of HP's turnaround in EMEA.

"HP remains committed to supporting the employability of its employees through a number of internal initiatives, including re-skilling, redeployment and support to obtain alternative employment as appropriate."