MSF, the union for skilled and professional people, today called on Fujitsu to implement a social plan to retain key IT skills in the wake of the company’s announcement of 16,000 world-wide job losses.

The union which represents many of Fujitsu’s 10,000 UK ICL workforce is calling for an innovative approach to reflect the company’s Japanese culture rather than the “slash and Burn” approach favoured by US and UK companies.

Peter Skyte, MSF Head of Sector, said, “Whilst we recognise that Fujitsu is facing many of the same world-wide pressures as other global IT companies, this is the latest in a series of job cuts affecting ICL employees in the UK over recent times.

“Now is the time for UK executives to justify their enlarged salary packages by drawing up an effective social plan to retain as many of the skills as possible and avoid skill shortages in the next upturn. ”