HP workers await jobs cuts news

Some 4,000 workers at Hewlett Packard in Ireland are waiting to hear if their jobs will be affected after the company announced its to cut its global workforce by 8%.

The computer giant last night confirmed that some 27,000 jobs are to be cut worldwide by the end of 2014.

No indication has yet been given on whether the 4,000 staff at Leixlip in Co. Kildare and Ballybrit in Galway city will be affected.

The US technology company plans to make the cuts, which amount to 8% of its global workforce of almost 350,000 people, as it struggles for sales in a marketplace increasingly dominated by smartphones and tablet computers.

HP, which has its headquarters in Palo Alto, near San Francisco, California, said the job cuts, along with other measures, should save it $3.5bn (€2.75bn) which it would invest in growth areas like “cloud” storage technology.

A spokeswoman said: “We do expect the workforce reduction to impact just about every business and region.”

HP says it hopes to reduce the number of redundancies by offering an early retirement programme.

Workforce reduction plans will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultation with works councils and employee representatives.

The firm’s chief executive Meg Whitman, also a former CEO of eBay, said the cuts were needed to ensure HP’s long-term health.

“While some of these actions are difficult because they involve the loss of jobs, they are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long term health of the company,” she said.

“We are setting HP on a path to extend our global leadership and deliver the greatest value to customers and shareholders.”