Fujitsu Services faces strike action from staff

Bryan Glick, Computing, Sunday 30 August 2009 at 01:00:00

Union members votes in favour of action over plans to shut final salary
pension

IT services provider Fujitsu Services is set for a battle with trade unions
after its employee members of Unite voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike
action.

The dispute centres on the supplier?s plan to shut its final salary pension
scheme and the imposition of a pay freeze.
The
company also announced last week that 1,200 staff will be laid off ? nearly
10 per cent of its UK workers - further provoking the union?s anger.

Some 87 per cent of Unite members working for Fujitsu voted in favour of
strike action and 96 per cent were in favour of industrial action short of a
strike.

The union claimed that the proposed pension change would reduce the total pay
package of each employee by at least 15 per cent.

?Fujitsu Services is not struggling or failing. It is a highly profitable and
successful company but one which is seeking to take advantage of the recession
to attack jobs, pay, pensions and conditions,? said Peter Skyte, Unite national
officer for IT and communications.

?Our members are insisting that the company should pay fairly and provide
decent pensions for all its employees. Following the announcement of 1,200
redundancies, they are now calling for the issue of job cuts to be included in
any ballot for formal industrial action. We are calling on the company to meet
us to resolve these issues and avoid the risk of damaging industrial action.?

Fujitsu has blamed the job cuts on lower-than-expected sales, despite making
a pre-tax profit of �200m last year.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2248675/fujitsu-services-faces-strike