IBM has kept mum on whether the company's alleged 4200 staff lay-offs in the United States will hit Australia.
While the company confirmed it will cull jobs in its US operations, its respective union, Alliance@IBM, claimed some 1419 staff were axed within its software group and a further 1499 in sales and distribution.
A local IBM spokesperson said it is unaware of plans to cut positions in Australia.
“We don't comment on speculation on local resource actions. There is nothing that we know of,” she said, adding the company is currently hiring new staff for local operations.
“We are constantly rebalancing the workforce depending on client needs. We will always make tweaks to meet demand.”
An Australian Services Union (ASU) spokesperson said the cutbacks have not as yet affected Australia, and that it had received inquiries from staff regarding the US lay-offs.
“IBM is talking about a restructure in Australia, but said it will not involve job losses,” he said.
“If we hear anything about [job losses] we will work with members to minimise the need for redundancies and to make sure the move is justified.”
Alliance@IBM had not responded to inquiries about local redundancies at the time of publication. The union is lead by former IBM employee now Alliance@IBM national co-ordinator Lee Conrad.
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