Jobs threat at CSC

Unite members joined lunchtime protests against job losses at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) Chesterfield and Leeds sites. A rep in Chesterfield told me that the profitable US company wants to make more than 400 compulsory redundancies across four of its larger sites in Britain.

“450 have already been identified for redundancy, but 700 have volunteered. It’s a sign of how people feel working for this company that so many want to go.

“In addition to this the company has announced a further 650 job losses across the UK and Ireland. CSC is retaining its offshore jobs in India. There may now be a ballot for industrial action.”

CSC has lost work on the massive Lorenzo NHS contract that New Labour introduced ten years ago. Despite a £3 billion agreement with the Department of Health to install IT systems, there have been huge technical problems that CSC has not overcome. Government bureaucracy and NHS Trusts wanting their own standards have made the project even more complex.

The government now aims to cut £1 billion from the project. Remember when Cameron and Co claimed that public sector job losses would be replaced by the private sector?

Jon Dale