EU Review Sought on HP Job Cuts
French President Jacques Chirac has asked his government to refer Hewlett-Packard Co.’s plan to cut jobs in France to the European Union, government officials said Tuesday.
“On the question of the announcement of the reduction in [the number of] workers at the Hewlett-Packard group, he asked the government to pursue all the efforts underway to respond,” a source close to Chirac said. “Given the impact of this plan throughout Europe, he asked the government to refer it to the European Commission.”
Palo Alto-based HP plans to cut 1,240 jobs in France by 2008. The computer giant is also planning to cut jobs in other European countries.
HP said in July that it would slash about 10% of its workforce in a sweeping move by new Chief Executive Mark Hurd to cut costs by $1.9 billion a year and compete better in cutthroat computer and printer markets.
In Brussels, the commission said it had received nothing from France on the issue.
“For the time being the commission has not received anything but once we do, we will take it very seriously and look into it,” said European Commission employment spokeswoman Katharina von Schnurbein.
News of HP’s job cuts in France emerged this month and was a blow to Chirac’s conservative government, which has made tackling a jobless rate of almost 10% a top priority.
The HP job cuts are the biggest since former CEO Carly Fiorina slashed about 15,000 jobs after the firm’s $19-billion acquisition of Compaq Computer in May 2002. Analysts have pressed HP for further job cuts or to spin off its lucrative imaging and printing group or sell its personal computing business.
