Xerox to lay off 3,000 staff

Downturn hits document company
Written by Shaun Nichols in San Francisco
vnunet.com, 24 Oct 2008

Xerox has become the latest technology heavyweight to issue a major round of layoffs.

The company revealed on Thursday that the sagging economy has forced a reorganisation plan which could see some 3,000 jobs eliminated. Such a cut would remove five per cent of Xerox's total workforce.

News of the cuts came as the company revealed its quarterly earnings report. Xerox managed to pull in a $258m profit with help from a surge in sales to developing countries.

However, sales in the US took a hit and the company expects its numbers to follow suit as the economic downturn continues.

"The resulting shift in revenue mix does put pressure on our gross margin," said Xerox chairman and chief executive Anne Mulcahy.

"To better align our operations with these changes, we are accelerating actions to reduce our cost base and drive operational improvements across the board, giving us more flexibility in our business in this unpredictable economy. "

News of the cuts follows an announcement from Yahoo that its own economic worries will lead to 1,500 layoffs. Earlier this month, chipmaker Micron revealed that it would be cutting roughly 3,000 jobs.

Earlier this week Michael Dell said that his company was nearing the end of its major 9,000-person layoff campaign.

Xerox staff who began work in recent weeks face layoff

John Downes and Adam Harvey

Xerox employees in Dublin expressed anger yesterday at the possible transfer overseas of up to 900 jobs, with many staff facing redundancy or redeployment abroad to keep their jobs.
It was also revealed that the company had continued to hire staff at its site in Blanchardstown even as the groundwork was being laid for the outsourcing deal, which will lead to phased redundancies.

Several staff members working for the document processing giant at the Ballycoolin industrial estate in Blanchardstown said they had started work within the past fortnight. "That's what I don't understand," said one employee, a German man who said he started at Xerox just weeks ago. "They have a recruitment agency, and they're recruiting like mad - I don't know what for," said the man, who declined to give his name.

Approximately 900 Xerox jobs in Ballycoolin, mainly in the call centre, will be affected when the work is outsourced to IBM from the beginning of September. IBM in turn hopes to transfer some or all of these jobs to cheaper overseas centres over the next 18 to 24 months.

Announcing details of the new contract last month, Xerox told journalists that there would be no job losses and staff would transfer to IBM under the same terms and conditions they currently enjoyed. It also said staff would continue to work in the same location.

However, the IDA said last night it had learned a week after the announcement of the deal that the Irish jobs were at risk.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, who was briefed last week by the agency, has no plans to intervene directly.

IBM said that some workers will be redeployed and others will be offered redundancy. Other jobs will be lost through natural attrition.

But workers said there appeared to be strict conditions attached to the redundancy deals, which may not be available to those who refused to move abroad. A company spokesman declined to comment on this.

It is understood that some of the redeployed jobs may be conditional on relocating to another country. The majority of the staff are foreign workers and many seemed confused about whether their jobs will be lost or relocated.

"The only thing they've said is we're going to be relocated somewhere," said Hanna Majaniemi, from Finland. "It could be here in Europe or it could be farther away."

Yesterday, none of the workers said they would be prepared to move to eastern Europe.

"I'm here to save money and learn English," said one man. "How can I do that in Bulgaria?"