Unisys cuts contractor rates

Unisys has confirmed reports that it has reduced the rates of its high-earning Australian contractors in an effort to reduce operating costs.

"It was very quickly agreed to in Australia," Asia Pacific general manager Andrew Barkla told Computerworld NZ when discussing similar moves in New Zealand.

A company spokesperson said contrary to reports, it was "not promoting" four-day weeks to Australian and New Zealand staff in an effort to cut costs. It clarified that it supported flexing working arrangements that met the needs of the company and the employee, and reduced hours was one of those options.

Confirmation was also received on the closure of Unisys' Australian retail point-of-sale operations and the fact it had moved out of its SAP business intelligence program in early 2008. The company currently still offers enterprise servers for SAP.

Unisys recently had contract wins with RHG (formerly RAMS) and Queensland Transport while being dropped from two Victorian Government Departments.