A claim of discrimination against Fujitsu’s redundancy process has added further tension to strike action over job cuts and pensions.

The Unite union fears a “disproportionate” number of women, part-time and non-white staff have lost their jobs in a round of cuts by the IT giant, although the company refutes the allegation.

The company revealed this week 89 people from the Bracknell branch in Lovelace Road had lost their jobs, as well as six in a smaller office in Winnersh.

Union members, who will walk out again today and tomorrow, braved the snow to picket outside the company last Thursday, Friday and Monday.

Fujitsu revealed the number of staff in its Eskdale Road office in Winnersh Triangle has been cut from 17 to 11.

A spokesman said five employees were made redundant and the additional staff loss had been due to someone who had left and not been replaced.

Union members are also unhappy at the company’s new pension scheme, which they say leaves staff around 20 per cent worse off.

Members also say Fujitsu is still in a strong position, with a £200 million profit last year despite the recession, and has no need to cut positions or impose a pay freeze.

Other staff were taking part in non-strike industrial action by not working unpaid overtime and only working their exact hours.

The row has been stoked by an allegation of discrimination by the union.

Unite claims it has identified “major discrepancies” in the scoring and selection for redundancies and says it has data showing women, part-time staff and non-white employees scored disproportionately lower than male, full-time and white members of staff.

Peter Skyte, Unite national officer for IT and communications, said: “We are disturbed to find that a disproportionate number of women, part-time and ethnic minority workers appear to have been selected for redundancy at Fujitsu, but have had no meaningful response from the company to our queries on this.

“This strengthens our case for a fairer, open and more transparent pay system which we also suspect may be masking potential discrimination.”

But a Fujitsu spokesman said: “We are very disappointed Unite has made these allegations.

“As an equal opportunities employer Fujitsu consulted on the proposed selection criteria with elected employee representatives and with representatives of its recognised trade unions (including Unite) throughout the collective redundancy programme and is confident that no discrimination resulted.

“We are aware of the points raised by Unite and have responded detailing our reasons as to why we are confident our selection process was fair and was not discriminatory.”

The company announced last autumn it was looking to streamline its UK operations by about 10 per cent, around 1,200 staff.

However, the spokesman confirmed the amount of staff who had been made redundant nationally, either voluntarily or compulsory, had been reduced to 876, with 586 taking voluntary redundancy.

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