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Unite Astonished at HP Proposal to Cut Pay of 300,000 Workers Worldwide
LONDON, February 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Unite, the UK's largest union, has expressed astonishment at today's (Thursday, 19th) announcement by HP that it proposes to cut the pay of its entire global workforce by up to 5%, with more for senior executives. The announcement was made as part of the HP reporting of its first quarter results for 2009, with revenue growth of 1% compared to last year to GBP20bn, with profits of GBP1.3bn. Peter Skyte, Unite national officer, said: "UK employees who have made a key contribution to the doubling of the HP services revenue and borne the brunt of redundancies in Europe will be astonished that a company that is increasing revenue and still making substantial profits is seeking a pay cut from its UK workforce. "Whilst the basic pay of senior executives is being cut, they will more than make up any reduction in basic pay by increases in their executive bonuses brought about by reductions in every one else's basic pay. "The company has today told us that in the UK any pay reduction will only be with employee agreement and that no coercion will be applied. We will be seeking written assurances about this when we meet the company next week."
