HP forces EDS employees to cut costs without paid leave

Beijing time July 17 Evening News, according to foreign media reported in Friday, Hewlett-Packard has sent an e-mail to EDS employees to provide them with unpaid leave, and temporarily reduce working hours and wages to cut costs. Before the end of October, EDS staff can choose to take unpaid leave or reduce working hours.　　They need to negotiate with managers on this, with a minimum of 5 days off. EDS staff can choose to take a one-week vacation or disperse for 5 days. HP also said employees could share the corresponding pay cuts to 3 months.　　For example, employees can take two weeks off in August, but pay cuts can be apportioned to August, September and October.　　In addition, employees receive a one-day paid leave for each five-day unpaid leave. The email made it clear that reducing working hours is temporary and differs from a pay cut.　　But employees can alternating unpaid leave during school holidays with the approval of their supervisors.　　Hewlett-Packard spokesman said: "HP needs to continue to transform business, improve the efficiency of the company, to ensure that HP in a difficult economic environment to remain competitive and to provide users with the best possible value." As part of this initiative, Hewlett-Packard's subsidiary, EDS, offered employees a variety of ways to voluntarily reduce their working hours.　　These methods apply to all or part of HP's remaining time of the current fiscal year and require the approval of the manager. Hewlett-Packard revealed at the end of June that the company had asked Eds's Irish staff to vote for 2.5% or 5%. Employees will vote before July 21. If employees are interested to know about special unpaid leave or flexible working schedule, they can contact their manager by email. (Yi Fei)