Fujitsu to chop at the very least 100 extra UK employees
Fujitsu has put almost 500 UK workers on discover of doable redundancy, because it plans to chop greater than 100 roles.
The provider might face monetary stress within the coming months when it lastly contributes to the massive prices of the Submit Workplace scandal.
A query posed to administration throughout a latest firm discussion board requested particulars in regards to the deliberate workforce reductions. In response, administration confirmed that 480 individuals are in danger, with over 100 redundancies proposed.
Cuts are being made in departments together with digital transformation, customer support administration and enterprise cyber safety.
Fujitsu, which employs about 6,000 folks within the UK, stated: “As all giant organisations do, we recurrently overview inner expertise and resourcing to make sure we are able to meet market calls for whereas remaining aggressive.”
In April final yr, Fujitsu made about 100 job cuts in its UK gross sales and pre-sales groups. Two months later, it remodeled half of its Oracle Follow staff – about 60 jobs within the UK – redundant.
Fujitsu helped Submit Workplace cowl up
Fujitsu is embroiled within the Submit Workplace scandal, which noticed lives ruined and a whole bunch prosecuted because of being wrongly blamed for accounting shortfalls that have been attributable to errors in its Horizon software program.
The provider has been hit by uncertainty and is ready to find how a lot of the monetary prices of the scandal it’ll pay.
It promised to pay its share, however solely after the completion of the statutory public inquiry into the scandal. The proof has now been heard, and half one of many chair’s report has been printed. It will likely be full when half two of the report is printed later this yr.
Partially one of many report, which seemed on the human affect of the scandal, chair Wyn Williams stated it’s a “actual chance” that 13 folks took their very own lives because of their remedy by the Submit Workplace after they suffered unexplained shortfalls of their branches.
Fujitsu workers worry for his or her jobs
One employee on the provider stated: “Fujitsu was a superb place to work, however I felt sick once I learn the primary a part of the general public inquiry report and what number of postmasters took their very own lives or misplaced every little thing.
“All of the folks at Fujitsu who’ve misplaced or are shedding their jobs had nothing to do with Horizon, and but once more, nothing occurs to anybody in management who makes these selections.”
The second a part of the inquiry report, due later this yr, will, amongst different issues, report on the Horizon IT system: its procurement, design, pilot, roll-out and modifications. It should analyse Horizon’s operation, together with coaching, the decision of disputes, and the information and rectification of errors within the system. It should additionally make judgments on Fujitsu’s function within the prosecution of subpostmasters, who have been blamed for accounting shortfalls.
It’s the upcoming a part of the inquiry report the place Fujitsu can count on extreme criticism for its function. Past its software program inflicting errors, the provider helped the Submit Workplace cowl up the scandal, together with giving false proof in courtroom.
Fujitsu ought to pay for its half
In February, Former MP and now peer Kevan Jones, who has campaigned for subpostmasters affected by the scandal for a decade and a half, referred to as on Fujitsu to make an interim fee of £300m.
That is, coincidentally, the identical quantity the Submit Workplace – and due to this fact taxpayers – have paid attorneys since 2014, a interval when the organisation was making an attempt to cover the scandal.
In keeping with a Freedom of Data request from a campaigner, identified on X as Monsieur Cholet, throughout these 11 years, the Submit Workplace has spent £308m on authorized corporations, together with £188m on providers from Herbert Smith Freehills.
On prime of this, greater than £1bn has already been paid from the general public purse to supply monetary redress for the affected subpostmasters, with prices rising on a regular basis.
In April final yr, Liam Byrne, chair of the Enterprise and Commerce Committee, instructed Laptop Weekly that the place to begin for presidency negotiations with Fujitsu ought to be an equal share of prices.
“In relation to Fujitsu, the federal government’s start line must be 50:50,” he stated.
Fujitsu employees instructed Laptop Weekly that the provider ought to have paid some contribution already.
The Submit Workplace scandal was first uncovered by Laptop Weekly in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered resulting from Horizon accounting software program, which led to essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see beneath timeline of Laptop Weekly articles in regards to the scandal since 2009).
