HP, Gateway furlough workers without pay over holidays

Computerworld - For the second year in a row, PC makers Hewlett-Packard Co. and Gateway Inc. are requiring employees not directly involved in customer support to take five days off without pay this holiday season.
While HP workers can use accrued vacation days, a spokeswoman for Poway, Calif.-based Gateway said its employees won't be able to do so.
"This is unpaid time off," said Gateway spokeswoman Ashley Wood.
Wood said the furloughs affect about 25% of Gateway's 10,000 employees in departments such as engineering, product development and administration. Last week, Gateway said its fourth-quarter revenue may not meet expectations.
The cost-cutting efforts by the two companies come as worldwide PC sales continue to suffer from the ongoing slowdown in the economy.
IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass., said last week that it expects worldwide PC shipments to be slow for the next several quarters, though it envisions a rebound next year that should continue into 2004 (see story).
Workers at Dell Computer Corp. will get paid time off during the holidays, according to a spokesman, and IBM isn't requiring its employees to take any time off.
HP spokeswoman Rebeca Robboy said contract workers worldwide who work in the company's internal computer operations will take off 20 work days between today and Jan. 20.
In July, HP furloughed 4,000 contractors in North America, a move that saved the company $15 million (see story).

Read more about Hardware in Computerworld's Hardware Topic Center.