HP fails in attempt to question ex-IT workers under oath regarding sudden resignation of 18 employees in November.
HP has lost a bid for a Texas court order that would have permitted the OEM to interrogate under oath two of its former IT workers, who the company suspects helped to orchestrate the resignation of a further 16 former HP workers in November last year, reports Bloomberg.
All 18 former HP employees left the company “en masse and without notice” to take up employment with nearby automaker General Motors, which is reportedly looking to hire around 7,500 IT workers over the next five years in a bid to move IT operations in-house.
According to HP, six workers left with former HP IT manager Gregg Hansen, with a further three of the OEM’s IT workers quitting with Todd MacKenzie, also a former IT manager for the company, rousing suspicion that Hansen and MacKenzie had violated their contracts by soliciting HP employees. The resignations led HP to file a case to the Texas state court against the two men, with the company stating that “the sudden departures affected at least four teams within HP’s IT organisation, and HP expects that additional resignations will follow”.
However, Judge Tim Sulak denied HP’s request, but has permitted them to renew it at a later date “based on additional or future developments”, with lawyers for Hansen and MacKenzie stating in opposition papers filed with Sulak that “HP failed to advise the court that the loss of these 18 employees is miniscule compared to the tens of thousands of jobs HP is slashing across its workforce […] Hansen and MacKenzie did not orchestrate the departures of the 16 other HP employees, which had nothing to do with anything Hansen or MacKenzie (or any other former HP employee) said or did”.
HP announced last year that it would be cutting 29,000 jobs, eight percent of its overall workforce by 2014 in a bid to restructure and cut costs.