Fujitsu staff face uncertainty as the supplier targets 10% cost savings amid a tough economic period, while up to 100 people will be affected by the loss of their HMRC contract.
The Japanese IT giant has seen its UK public sector business struggle due to the fallout from the crisis. Scandal at the post office that it helped fuel. The UK has seen a significant reduction in its workforce over the past two years, but cuts will continue.
According to the source, the latest loss of HMRC's Trader Support Service (TSS) contract worth £245 million will affect up to 100 Fujitsu employees, and TUPE will apply to its replacement supplier Netcompany and layoffs are expected.
Meanwhile, sources said the company has asked its chief operating officer to cut costs by 10%, which could put jobs at risk. There have already been at least 150 job cuts this year, according to one insider.
A Fujitsu spokesman said: “Like any large organisation, we continually review our workforce to remain competitive. We are focused on ensuring Fujitsu UK is effectively resourced to deliver services to our customers and run a long-term sustainable business.”
Regarding the TSS cuts, a Fujitsu spokesperson said: “While we are naturally disappointed by this decision, we will continue to work closely with HMRC to ensure a smooth transition of services.”
In January 2024, following ITV's dramatization of the Post Office scandal, Fujitsu has introduced a voluntary ban on tenders for new public sector work until the controversial public inquiry is completed. The main report of the investigation is not expected until later this year, with no date set yet.
A source told Computer Weekly that Fujitsu is losing not only business where it is an existing supplier, but also tenders for work it expected to win.
One source familiar with the situation said: “It's hard to ignore that the human costs of cost cutting at Fujitsu are falling on those who do the work. Senior managers are not affected, but the people doing the day-to-day work are being laid off.”
The source added: “There is little discernible sympathy for those losing their jobs, although many of these decisions come from senior management decisions driven by legal risk management and a primary focus on avoiding admissions of liability.”
Separately in July Fujitsu warned almost 500 UK employees possible layoffs as the company plans to cut more than 100 positions. This follows cuts in April 2024 when Fujitsu created about 100 jobs ceased to exist in the sales and pre-sales departments in the UK, and was replaced a few months later by half of the Oracle Practice team – about 60 jobs in the UK are redundant.
Read more: Fujitsu's role in the Post Office scandal: everything you need to know.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Fujitsu's largest government customer in the UK, replaced by a consortium led by Fujitsu about its Trader Support Service (TSS) service for Northern Ireland, worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
A government department that is described as British cash cow Fujitsubreaks off relations with Fujitsu through tender for data center services A £500 million deal to exit the provider's services. Fujitsu is also neglected in the private sector. At the end of 2024 this lost the contract with the owner of British Gas Centrica after the company's board, fearing reputational damage, blocked it, despite the troubled supplier being the preferred bidder.
There was a mail scandal first published in Computer Weekly magazine in 2009.revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they faced with Fujitsu's Horizon accounting software..
