August 5th, 2009
Reports: HP cutting more EDS salaries
Updated: HP is reportedly cutting salaries of EDS workers again. It’s the second round of salary cuts for EDS staffers since HP acquired the services giant.
According to the Dallas Morning News and television reports, EDS workers have been notified that another round of pay cuts is coming. The aim is to align EDS salaries with HP’s. HP also cut EDS salaries in March.
It’s unclear how many EDS employees are affected and the geographic distribution. It is assumed that most of the EDS cuts will be in the U.S. The Dallas Morning News also reports that EDS workers are saying that salary cuts range from less than 10 percent to 30 percent or more.
HP issued the following statement:
As part of the EDS integration process, a project was undertaken to ensure that employees in both EDS and HP, holding the same roles, receive comparable compensation based on market rates. While pay will not be impacted for the majority of employees as a result of this process, some employees will receive pay reductions while others will benefit from salary increases. We understand that these changes personally impact our employees and we are working closely with them during this transition.
EDS is an integral part of HP’s long term strategy to provide more services and solutions to our clients.
Locally, HP’s EDS cuts are a big deal. The Dallas Fort Worth NBC affiliate writes the following about an EDS worker:
“The community needs to know what’s happening to an outstanding company,” said an employee who wished to remain anonymous.
That employee has worked for EDS between 12-20 years, climbing the corporate ladder but still firmly in the middle class. Last week he received an email which informed him his base salary would be reduced effective Sept. 1.
Here’s the report:
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/video.
On the management front, our sister site BNET has captured the healthy debate about whether companies should lay off workers or cut salaries. Neither is exactly a morale booster, but more companies are choosing to cut pay. AMD, HP, FedEx, Office Depot, General Motors, AK Steel, Agilent Technologies, Atlas World Group have all cut compensation packages. Meanwhile, Knowledge@Wharton notes that most of the affected workers tend to be older.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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