http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2597599/ CALIFORNIA STATE EMPLOYEE GET BONUS FOR SHOWING HOW WASTFULL OEM HP 5550 CARTRIDGES ARE. A state worker who was set to receive a cash award for uncovering large-scale ink waste from Hewlett Packard printers has
asked officials to re-evaluate the bonus, saying the amount of the
waste he discovered is substantially larger than what was used to
calculate his award.Dave Henning, a buyer in the food acquisitions
group at the Department of General Services, was eligible for a $3,476
merit award for saving the state an estimated $69,520 in toner
cartridge waste, state records show.
Henning found that HP’s
5550dn laser jet printers signaled their color cartridges needed to be
replaced and recycled when they were still 60 to 90 percent full. The
cartridges cost $560 for three.An evaluation form used to calculate his
award says 399 of the printers were purchased by the state. But Henning
told The Bee recently that more than 700 printers actually were
purchased, which if correct would increase the size of his award.But he
said his decision to ask for a re-evaluation is not about money. “I
wanted them to fix the problem,” he said, referring to HP. “That was my
goal all along. The merit award was incidental.”
HP, though,
declined. “We are limited in our ability to modify these products — ”
an account representative wrote DGS in an e-mail obtained through the
California Public Records Act.Jeffrey Young, deputy director for public
affairs at DGS, said the department strongly supports Henning’s
decision.”We think he did a great job,” Young said. “The department
wants to give him this award but we want it to be the right amount,
too. So we are looking into it and revising the numbers.”