Barclaycard is to close its Manchester call centre with
the loss of 600 jobs, and move most of the work to India to cut
costs.
Union Amicus has condemned the move. Amicus official Steve
Pantak said, “At a time of increasing pressure on all staff in
Barclaycard we believe it to be totally inappropriate for this
large and highly profitable employer to be announcing closures and
job losses. We have made our opposition to these moves very clear
to the bank.”
But the union seems to have accepted that the call centre will
close this summer as planned. It is now concentrating on getting
jobless staff re-deployed in the Barclays group.
Pantak said, “We believe that with such a large presence in the
north-west, Barclays should be able to accommodate all those staff
who are displaced but wish to remain with them. We will be pushing
the bank hard to achieve this outcome.”
Profits at Barclaycard have dipped recently in comparison with
other parts of the group, and the bank now wants to shave costs by
moving the call centre work to India and elsewhere.
Most of the jobs will move to Delhi and Mumbai, and a number of
others will move to another Barclays call centre in Teesside.
Last week, Lloyds TSB said it would close its Indian call centre
and instead rely on its 10 UK call centres. Lloyds TSB said new
voice response technology had reduced the number of calls to actual
staff, meaning the call “overflow” operation in India was no longer
needed.
Lloyds TSB shuts Indian call centre
Offshoring offers greater IT flexibility, says
Norwich Union
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