Hewlett-Packard shows its contempt for trade union rights in Bulgaria
This year’s World Day for Decent Work will stand out as the day when Hewlett-Packard (HP) demonstrated once more its disrespect for the fundamental rights of freedom of speech, assembly and association of an officially recognized trade union.
The Confederation of the Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) branch at the HP subsidiary in Bulgaria (HP GDBC EOOD) had scheduled on that very day (7th October 2013) an international conference in Sofia, called “Our Future @ HP in Europe” The event was sponsored by the German trade union IG Metall and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. It was also supported by the HP European Alliance of IndustriAll Europe and UNI Europa.. When the international participants to the conference, from Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Romania – most of them HP badged employees – arrived at the HP offices, the management refused them access. The meeting had to be moved to a nearby hotel.
In the weeks before, the local HP management had suspended the communication rights of the local trade union and blocked an electronic survey on well-being and awareness. This behaviour seems to be anchored in an unfortunately long-standing practice. In 2011, the HP subsidiary in Bulgaria created a major incident by organizing elections to the European Works Council outside and against Bulgarian law. The EWC subsequently challenged the way legal guarantees for fairness and the secrecy of the voting procedure had been respected on that occasion.
Over the last few weeks, several attempts were made by the “HP European Alliance of IndustriAll Europe and UNI Europa” to convince the regional HP management in charge of Europe – Middle East – Africa (EMEA) to intervene and to make sure the local Bulgarian management respect the fundamental rights of the local trade union. Although higher HP management has stated that HP is committed to respect trade union rights, in practice they allow the violations to continue. In a highly centralized global company such as HP it is not reasonable to assume these practices can survive with not at least the tacit support of the regional management at EMEA level.
The purpose of the conference “Our Future @ HP in Europe” was to support the development of social dialogue in newer Members States (NMS) of the European Union, where HP has extensively re-located in recent years. While moving work to the NMS, HP has failed to transpose there the decent work conditions and labour rights that are the hallmark of the European social model. Instead, it has developed an unfair model, with acceptable conditions for some, but forced and unpaid overtime, and precarious labour contracts, for others. Trade unions do not see HP as the promoter of a fair and decent social dialogue in these countries.
The HP European Alliance of IndustriAll Europe and UNI Europa call upon HP again to finally recognize the fact that trade unions exist and enjoy strong legal protection in Europe. They demand full respect at all levels of HP management for all aspects of social dialogue and social legislation. The European Union cannot merely be a region used by HP to escape from taxation on profits in the USA and to shift around employees on a daily basis without meeting their rightful expectations for decent work and collective representation.