Hewlett-Packard is telling 800 workers at a Colorado Springs customer-service center they must relocate to New Mexico or face layoff, unnamed sources told the Colorado Springs Gazette on Tuesday.
A worker who asked to remain anonymous told The Denver Post that HP held a meeting Tuesday and gave employees until Aug. 15 to decide whether to relocate or take a severance package.
HP said last week that it will open new customer-service centers in Rio Rancho, N.M., and Conway, Ark. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said it plans to phase in about 1,300 workers at the New Mexico plant over a four-year period.
The worker told The Post that employees who relocate would get financial help moving. Those who don’t will be given a severance package if they continue to work until the relocation to New Mexico is complete. The Gazette said the customer- service center in Colorado Springs is slated to close a year from now.
The high-tech company employs between 1,800 and 2,000 workers at its Colorado Springs campus.
While customer-service-center workers would be relocated, technical support engineers and workers in research and development, financial operations and those in a data center for DirecTV would still have jobs in the Springs, according to The Gazette.
No one from HP could be reached for comment. HP spokesman Dave Berman told The Gazette the company was in “internal discussions” with employees but would not confirm the 800 job cuts.
Mike Kazmierski, president and chief executive of the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp., said the possible loss of jobs at HP remains a deep concern, but it’s not a foregone conclusion.
He said he had talked to an HP official Tuesday evening and HP had assured him that a decision to relocate workers had not been made.
“It is undetermined at this time what the impact of the two call centers will be on the employees at Colorado Springs,” Kazmierski said he was told by the HP official, whom he would not name.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
