LONDON, September 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Unite, the UK's largest union, has today (Tuesday, 16th September) condemned Hewlett Packard's (HP) announcement that it intends to shed 24,600 staff globally in a re-structuring programme.

Peter Skyte, Unite National Officer, said:

"We urge HP to provide a detailed plan for the re-structuring programme and we will push for redeployment and re-skilling of the existing workforce in the event of re-organisation, as has been done previously in EDS.

"Unite are not against change, but we will oppose any compulsory redundancies. We will closely monitor the impact of this proposal announced by HP and take all possible steps to safeguard the interests of our members and the workforce.

"We will be seeking an urgent meeting with HP management to find out exactly what the company's intentions are. To date we are dissatisfied with the lack of information provided by HP and EDS."

Unite met with over 40 other European union representatives from 9 countries in Brussels in advance of this expected re-structuring announcement. This announcement follows HP's takeover of EDS and was predicted by the unions to contain details of substantial job cuts in the UK and worldwide.

HP has offices in Belfast, Birmingham, Bracknell, Bristol, Derby, Erskine, London and Warrington.

For further information please contact Peter Skyte on +44(0)7768-931-302 or Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite Press Office on +44(0)20-7420-8914 or +44(0)7980-224761.