Lloyds TSBis to outsource almost half
of the programmers in its insurance and telephony division
following a three month review to improve IT
efficiency.
The company said 110 programmer roles and an additional 100 IT
contractor roles would be
outsourced to India to "improve the level of service" its
business gets from IT.
The cuts will come from a specific IT department currently
totalling 450 staff. The losses will affect offices in London,
Cardiff and Manchester and those working in its telephony and
insurance divisions.
Lloyds is outsourcing the jobs between
Wipro,
TCS and Cognizant Technology Solutions, following a review by
the company in May of its IT systems. Migration of roles begin this
October and will be fully offshored by March 2008.
"All IT staff will be offered voluntary redundancy or the
possibility of alternative placement within the company," said a
spokesman for Lloyds TSB.
Lloyds TSB first outsourced large amounts of work overseas in
2004 when it opened its first Indian call centre.
While some of the jobs have been brought back into the UK following
customer complaints, the bank said it did not have plans to
bring back office roles such as IT back to the UK.
Union officer John Bancroft of Unite said there was "no business
justification for the decision to send work aboard".
Earlier this year,
Lloyds TSB cut 245 back office jobs from its Peterborough
site.