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• Unite begins industrial action ballot over jobs, pay and pensions at Fujitsu
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• Unite calls on MSPs to put ‘people before profit’
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Unite begins industrial action ballot over jobs, pay and pensions at Fujitsu

7th October 2009

Unite, the largest union in the UK, has this week begun an industrial action ballot on jobs, pay and pensions covering over 1,500 members at Fujitsu in the UK where the union estimates the proposed pension scheme change would reduce the total pay package of each employee by typically around 20 percent.

The union has served seven days notice to the IT services company of the ballot which will begin on Monday 12th October. The ballot result is expected to be available after 30th October.

This follows a previous overwhelming vote for industrial action as part of a UK-wide consultative ballot against a proposal to close the company’s main final salary pension scheme and the imposition of a pay freeze. In the consultative ballot, 87 percent of members voted in favour of strike action and 96 percent in favour of industrial action short of a strike.

Some 4,000 employees in the main defined benefit pension plan are being hit by the company's plans to close the scheme to future accrual. The company intends to force this through by dismissing employees after the end of the consultation period in October, and offering them employment on new contracts which are unchanged, except in relation to pensions.

In late August, Fujitsu announced proposals for 1,200 redundancies in the UK and has since put 6,000 people at risk of redundancy, amounting to 50 percent of its UK workforce.

Peter Skyte, Unite national officer, said: “Unite members are asking why they should lose their jobs and tighten their belts when last year the company paid out about £150 million to shareholders and around £1.6 million to two directors as compensation for loss of office.

“The company imposed a pay freeze on UK staff earlier this year just a week before it was due to take effect, withdrawing promised pay rises to employees.

“Fujitsu remains a highly profitable company and our members are insisting that the company must treat them fairly and increase pay, provide decent pensions, and consult meaningfully to minimise job losses and avoid compulsory redundancy.”

Fujitsu Services continues to make substantial profits, with a £200 million profit before taxation last year, while the parent company is cash rich, having raised over £500 million from a share sale, and announcing the latest results in July, the Fujitsu president forecast record future profits.

Fujitsu employs around 12,500 people in the UK. Fujitsu’s main sites are at Bracknell, Stevenage, Manchester, Crewe, Belfast, Staines, Basingstoke, Wakefield, Sheffield, Solihull, Slough, Lewes, Warrington, Cardiff, Bristol, Newcastle and London.

ENDS

For further information please call Peter Skyte on 07768 931302 or Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite Press Office on 020 7420 8914 or 07980 224761.