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HP employee sues over disappearing discounts

A former Hewlett-Packard worker on Wednesday said he has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. Mark Leonard, a 23-year HP veteran, said that after his retirement in 1998 he was subsequently classified as having retired from HP spinoff Agilent Technologies and deprived of a key HP retirement benefit: free lifetime rebates on the purchase of HP products. An HP representative said the company had not seen the suit but the rebate program is subject to change under the terms of HP's retirement plan. "I retired from Hewlett Packard with the agreement that I would enjoy lifetime use of the product discount program," Leonard said in a statement. "The company has informed me that HP has the right to change the design of its benefits programs, but I do not believe they have the right to unilaterally change the terms of our contract without my consent or to say that I retired from Agilent, which did not exist and which I had never heard of at the time I retired."

A former Hewlett-Packard worker on Wednesday said he has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. Mark Leonard, a 23-year HP veteran, said that after his retirement in 1998 he was subsequently classified as having retired from HP spinoff Agilent Technologies and deprived of a key HP retirement benefit: free lifetime rebates on the purchase of HP products. An HP representative said the company had not seen the suit but the rebate program is subject to change under the terms of HP's retirement plan.

"I retired from Hewlett Packard with the agreement that I would enjoy lifetime use of the product discount program," Leonard said in a statement. "The company has informed me that HP has the right to change the design of its benefits programs, but I do not believe they have the right to unilaterally change the terms of our contract without my consent or to say that I retired from Agilent, which did not exist and which I had never heard of at the time I retired."