Thousands of EDS Employees Were Laid Off By HP This Week

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Dec. 5 2008 at 5:45 PM

Categories: Biz

A Friend of Unfair Park who works -- sorry, make that worked -- for Electronic Data Systems in Plano sends this missive:

Amazing how the DMN or any of the local news outlets has not reported the fact EDS has laid off 8,000 to 10,000 people this week. I was one of them on Monday. I will be on the payroll for two months while looking for a job internally; wink-wink, nod-nod. I get severance package of two weeks per year minus the 60 days on the payroll. I do get health insurance for two more months. If I get a job within the two months outside of EDS while on the payroll, EDS considers this as you having resigned and you do not get any severance package.

Now, at a certain management level, the severance package is one-year salary, a full year of health insurance and the kicker; still in the bonus pool.

Mother Fuckers! (Sorry...)

They get a bonus by laying off 26,000 EDS employees while shifting 15,000 jobs to Mumbai. Now, who is being un-American?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hewlett-Packard, which acquired Plano-based EDS in May, announced in September that 24,600 layoffs were coming -- about 7.5 percent of the combined EDS-HP workforce. And this evening, Jane McMillian, the Houston-based director of media releations, confirms to Unfair Park that, yes, layoffs in Plano did indeed begin this week, though "I have no exact numbers," she says. Incidentally, McMillian this week replaced longtime Plano-based EDS spokesman Bob Brand, who, she confirms, was among those let go this week. Also gone: Ron Rittenmeyer, president and chief executive officer of EDS, who announced his "retirement" today. --Robert Wilonsky

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