Following Computer Science Corporations's (CSC) announcement last week that it would be slashing 5,000 jobs, mainly in Europe, a Reg reader has forwarded us a company email that went round on Friday.

Take it away Keith Wilman...

Dear Colleague Following my meeting with staff representatives yesterday, I can now confirm that we shall be looking to reduce our staff numbers in the UK by up to 1200 and in order to achieve this I have agreed a UK wide voluntary redundancy programme to commence immediately. The areas from which volunteers will be invited are: GIS, GTS, C&SI, Account Management and our support functions - F&A, Marketing and HR.

This reduction is intended to help us get into better shape to meet our business challenges going forward.

We shall work with staff representatives over the coming months to review the success of this programme and I shall continue to ensure that everyone is informed of progress.

Each business area will communicate separately to their staff within the next few days, giving full details of the application process.

Keith Wilman President & CEO CSC Northern Region

So that's 1,200 of the 5,000 to go in the UK. Our suspicious correspondent noted that a few days prior to the cuts, CSC announced 5,000 jobs being created in India. He said: “Whilst I will congratulate our Indian colleagues on their hard work and economic success, it doesn't make worrying about your own job any easier.”

CSC declined to comment on the figures, or what would happen if 1,200 volunteers could not be found. ®