Job cuts hit CSC Australia

IT services giant CSC today confirmed it would make a number of its Australian staff redundant as a result of the global financial crisis.

"In response to the global economic environment, CSC Australia is implementing a business strategy to streamline and align resources to best meet current and future business needs, while providing the highest quality of services to our clients," the company said in a statement.

"These changes will result in a limited number of redundancies and redeployments at CSC. Where employees are displaced, CSC makes every effort to provide outplacement assistance and to help workers find employment elsewhere within CSC."

The news comes shortly after the company's Australian chief Nick Wilkinson emailed journalists personally on 17 April expressing optimism about the year ahead.

"This year looks like a banner year for CSC — despite the global financial crisis — and we are happy to celebrate our 50th birthday globally and 39 memorable years in Australia," he wrote.

CSC has picked up several contract wins recently; BHP Billiton renewed its relationship with the IT services firm with regards to its metallurgical coal and energy coal operations in February, and CSC has also won several parcels of work with electricity utility Western Power.

On 30 March CSC sealed a five-year extension on its contract with Wesfarmers-owned retailer Kmart worth $36.4 million. And superannuation specialist Superpartners revealed earlier in March it had picked SAP and CSC to provide it with a new enterprise resource planning system.

The company did not provide further details on the cuts. Locally CSC has over 3000 staff. CSC is one of the last major technology companies in Australia to have cut staff in response to the global financial crisis, with many other groups confirming redundancies over the past six months.