Leading tech companies lay off staff

IT services company Solnet has laid off 15 staff in Wellington, and Unisys is about to lay off 16. Solnet managing director Mark Botherway says his company’s redundancies represent around 10 percent of staff and are mainly in the project delivery area.

“Most of our major customers have had budget cuts of 35 percent and more,” he says. More than half of Solnet’s business is in government.

“There is considerable uncertainty in the market around project priorities,” Botherway says. “However, clients are now starting to get some clarity about those priorities.”

Unisys won’t confirm the exact number to go but sources within the company put the figure at 16.

Managing director Brett Hodgson says in a statement the company has been in consultation with a number of employees about their potential redundancy.

“Under the New Zealand Employee Relations Act, Unisys is legally obliged to speak to employees who fundamentally do the same role, to conduct a skills assessment and determine who will be made redundant,” he says. “This is business as usual in New Zealand.

“Unisys is committed to making the process as fast as possible, within the law, in order to treat all employees with respect and minimise the amount of stress involved.”