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IBM may swing axe on same departments more than once

Job security in tech? Maybe try another industry

Such is the lack of job security at IBM that staff in certain departments could be at risk of redundancy on more than one occasion during this year, The Channel can reveal.

An elected Employee Consultation Committee (ECC) is liaising between IBMers in Systems Middleware that are working in Platform, Integration and Smarter Process units, amid a voluntary redundancy process.

Around ten per cent of the division, which employs 736 staff locally, can ask to leave with a cheque. The notice period is one week per a year’s service, ranging from a minimum of four weeks to a maximum of 12.

The minutes of a meeting between IBM and ECC, seen by us, show the company is not yet able to reveal if the programme is oversubscribed, as was the case in marketing and global business services.

“If there is insufficient uptake via the voluntary programme, we may have to consider moving to an involuntary programme," said IBM.

Asked if further lay-offs are expected later in the year as well, IBM responded “the business reacts to results and as such no comment can be made on this as no-one actually knows”.

The company is reacting to eleven consecutive quarters of shrinking sales by imaginatively cutting heads to lower operating expenses and flatter the bottom line.

The computing giant is overhauling the internal structure to regroup around growth areas including the cloud, Watson, etc, and is hiring for certain areas IBM considers to be important. There are 162 vacancies at IBM posted on LinkedIn.

Take note those that want to leave: the ECC was reliably informed by Big Blue that if they leave with a pay off, it’ll “usually” be another 12 months before they can again become a permanent staffer or contractor.

The question is, what can they do with those empty months? Answers on a post card to news@sitpub.com. ®

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