HP workers call off planned strike

A planned two-day strike by 1,000 employees from HP's Enterprise Services department has been called off.

The workers had been planning to strike today and tomorrow over pay and job security, but new talks scheduled for tomorrow will give the company and the employees another chance to settle their differences.

Jim Hanson, national officer for HP at the Public and Commercial Service Union (PCS), explained that talks involving conciliatory body ACAS last Thursday had been productive, and had persuaded the PCS to postpone the action.

"Following a meeting with HP on 25 March where significant progress was made on the issues of pay and job security, PCS has agreed to suspend the current work-to-rule and strike action planned for 29 and 30 March," said Hanson in a statement.

Heconfirmed that the new talks will take place on 30 March, hosted by ACAS, during which the union will also review action planned for 6 and 7 April.

Staff in five separate HP offices working on IT contracts for the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Defence have already taken to the picket line on three occasions in the past two months as part of the long-running dispute.

HP staff are angry that, despite the company delivering record revenues of several billion dollars, a pay freeze has been in place for over a year.