Big Blue planning 2,000 layoffs in western Europe, says pressure group

900 staff facing exit in Germany alone, according to claims from Watching IBM

Almost 2,000 job cuts across western Europe could go as part of IBM's ongoing cost-cutting drive, a pressure group has claimed.

The Watching IBM Facebook page - born out of the now-defunct Alliance@IBM union - reports that Big Blue is shortly to give notice to 900 staff in Germany. The group states that this the first time the vendor has made enforced redundancies in the country.

Additionally, some 225 employees are to be shed at in IBM's office in Kista, north of Stockholm, as well as 160 workers in Denmark, 360 in France, and an as-yet-unspecified number in Switzerland, the website claims, adding that a voluntary redundancy programme will be implemented in Austria.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, Watching IBM states that "the next round of RA (resource action) in the US is imminent", with Big Blue's HR department meeting this week to discuss plans to cut as many of 17 per cent of the "tech sales force". Affected workers will depart on 30 June, the group claims, "to make room in July for new open source positions". The move has reportedly been code named Project Solitaire.

Elsewhere, 100 staff across the vendor's Chilean business are to set to be laid off, according to Watching IBM, as well as "monthly job cuts" to the vendor's SAP workforce in the Philippines.

In the last few years Big Blue has instituted a number of programmes in the name of "remixing" the skills of its workforce. Just over a year ago reports emerged that the company was planning its biggest-ever corporate restructuring exercise, with more than in four employees - about 112,000 people - facing an exit, according to an article in Forbes. The vendor was quick to refuted such claims, but did admit that "several thousand" posts would likely be lost.

Channelnomics Europe contacted IBM to request comment for this story, and is currently awaiting response.