HP is reportedly trimming staff in a shady, unethical way

Meg Whitman, HP CEO
Meg Whitman, HP CEO

More bad news out of the HP camp. The company is allegedly engaging in shady practices in order to save money laying off its employees.

Unnamed sources told Business Insider that HP contacted some hourly employees and asked them to become contract workers for a company called Adecco. Those who accepted lost all accrued vacation time, paid time off, benefits and seniority. Those who refused were terminated without severance.

Some of the workers were given pay raises as a result of the new agreement, while others were paid lower hourly rates and given title demotions.

The flip side

A source told techradar pro that a very small number of employees were given the offer referenced in the Business Insider story.

The source also said that the vast majority of those given the offer accepted new roles at Adecco.

When asked if the offer was given under the exact terms as stated by Business Insider the source was unable to say.

An HP spokesperson issued the following statement: "HP reached an agreement with a strategic labor partner to allow more flexibility in managing labor demands. There are a small number of employees who will move from HP and become contractors to HP's Mobility and Workplace Services organization. HP will continue to own and manage the end-client relationship and overall service responsibility."

What's happening at HP?

HP is currently in the process of dividing in two as a part of the company's plan to recover from years of disappointing quarterly reports. HP as we now know it will become two new companies, HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, by the end of HP's 2015 fiscal year.

The latest financial reports out of HP reveal that that company's revenues decreased 8.1% to $25.3 billion (around £16.1 billion, or AU$34 billion) last quarter. This is just one of the results of a sales decline that has plagued the company 15 of the last 16 quarters.

The company's split will cost $2 billion (around £1.27 billion, or AU$2.72 billion), and as a result, HP is planning to cut more jobs than the previously announced 55,000 positions. It is immediately unclear how many more jobs will be terminated, but perhaps now we have a better understanding of how HP plans to make these jobs go away.