IBM to cut jobs, cites routine ‘skill evaluation’

Nicole Volpe

NEW YORK: International Business Machines Corp., which confirmed last week

that it was laying off nearly 1,500 workers in its global services unit, is

letting other employees go in its personal computer business and its sales and

distribution operation, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The job cuts at the world's largest computer maker were part of routine

evaluation of workers' skills, said spokesman John Bukovinsky. "It's a

skills re-balancing we do on a consistent basis, year after year," he said.

"The most significant fact is that we expect our employee population to be

higher this year."

The Armonk, New York, company said last week it was cutting nearly 1 per cent

of the 150,000 workers in global services. It had added 10,000 workers in that

unit in the first five months of this year. At the beginning of 2001, IBM had a

total of 316,303 employees.

"There are limited actions in certain units - services, PCs - and there

are some folks in sales and distribution," Bukovinsky said. "It's a

little different than other companies saying they are laying off people."

Other computer makers, such as Compaq Computer Corp. and Dell Computer Corp.,

have slashed jobs to shore up profits amid sluggish sales throughout the

computer industry.

A Web site of Alliance at IBM, a unit of the Communications Workers of

America union, said sales and distribution employees in many locations

"have just been notified of 30 days until termination." "We're

hearing of sales and distribution cuts, about 540," said Lee Conrad,

national organizer for Alliance at IBM and a former IBM employee. "I think

this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Bukovinsky said he couldn't confirm the sales and distribution number, adding

that it is difficult to pinpoint a total number as any layoffs are occurring on

a unit-by-unit basis. "The only thing I'm aware of is 150 people out of the

PC business," he said, "It's unit-by-unit as they see fit.

The largest Hungarian unit of IBM cut staff by 500, to a total of 5,500, a

local paper reported last week. "Those 500 workers were contractors,"

Bukovinsky said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.