Protesters are holding a demonstration this morning (23 February) outside Fujitsu’s offices in Manchester. They are accusing the company of using the cover of redundancies to get rid of workers who blew the whistle on unethical and possibly illegal company behaviour.

Duncan Tait Fujitsu CEO for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa was due to attend a meeting at Fujitsu’s offices in Manchester today.

On 12 January 2018 Fujitsu dismissed a Unite representative. Before the dismissal whistleblowers raised extremely serious and damaging issues with the company which the union is compiling. Union reps have previously been targeted with spurious disciplinary allegations for legitimate union activity.

Unite national officer Louisa Bull said: “Unite believes that Fujitsu is trying to silence whistleblowers by dismissing some, and showing that it can make compulsory redundancies even when these are in breach of its agreements, employees’ contracts or the law.

“Taxpayers and clients need to know what is going on at Fujitsu, those blowing the whistle should not be sacked.

“Unite is demanding transparency and the reinstatement of our union representative. It is also time to end the unfair targeting of Unite members fighting for their jobs and for Fujitsu to adhere to its own agreements and ethical standards.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The protest is taking place between 7.00 am and 11.30 at Fujitsu in Manchester (M40 5BP)

For more information contact Ciaran Naidoo 07768 931 315

Unite is Britain and Ireland’s largest trade union with over 1.4 million members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Len McCluskey.