IBM lays off staff, restructures local management

Regional and US layoffs driven by offshoring

IBM New Zealand has made major staff changes and rumours are swirling of layoffs at the company.

Phill Patton has been appointed national sales manager and business partners say that two regional sales manager positions have been disestablished. Stephen Elliott has been appointed head of software.

Computerworld has been told that, in all, 34 jobs are going, but IBM was not prepared to comment on redundacies.

The company also said in an email that it didn’t comment on the details of internal appointments.

“Our leadership is continually changing to meet the needs of our clients and our business.”

CRN in Australia has reported that more than 800 local jobs could be cut as IBM Australia considers moving its business offshore.

The Australian Services Union (ASU) says workers have been told that IBM may service its customers, besides the Federal Government, from "low cost centres" in India and China.

In a statement remarkably similar to IBM New Zealand’s response to Computerworld, IBM spokesman Matt Mollett says: "IBM continuously transforms its business, rebalancing skills and capabilities in order to meet the changing needs of clients and our business as a whole," he said.

Meanwhile, as many as 2,000 more US IBMers may be shown the door after the company shed 10,000 last year

IBM isn't commenting on its latest round of cuts and information about it comes from the Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701, which gathers its data directly from IBM employees. The Alliance, which has blamed offshoring for many of the layoffs , has been trying to win bargaining rights for employees.

"IBM is clearly offshoring things where they can," said one IBM employee who received his notice yesterday and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he didn't want to jeopardise his severance. A 10-year veteran and Unix administrator, this employee said his customer support team once had 15 US-based workers. That staff was reduced over time to just three workers in the US, with other members of the customer support team now in Brazil, Argentina and India.

The employee said he was not given a good reason for his layoff.

"Higher ups made a decision that a certain percentage had to be cut — it was not performance-based at all," he said. Although the employee said he's uncertain about the job market, "my sense is that it is not horrendous [but] I'll have to assume that I'll have to take a cut in pay."

As of last October, IBM employed 105,000 workers in the US, compared to 115,000 in 2008. In 2007, IBM had 121,000 US employees. It employs about 400,000 globally.

IBM US doesn't discuss its jobs actions other than to explain that they are in response to shifting customer needs.

IBM's workforce is scattered around the country and it continues to hire in US locations. Michigan State University, for instance, has posted a notice about an IBM recruitment fair March 8 for IBM's Michigan Delivery Center. It says the company has nearly 60 "upcoming openings" for application support specialists. A university official deferred questions to IBM.