The union that represents most of the staff at Lloyds
TSB wants the government to put an end to offshoring jobs, as a
condition of the massive cash injection the bank has
received.
The government announced half a trillion pounds in capital to
help the UK banks get on a sounder footing
amid the turmoil of the credit crunch. Lloyds TSB is amongst
those that will receive funds directly.
"With the economy moving into a probable recession we should all
be working to keep valuable jobs in the UK," said Lloyds TSB Group
Union. "Instead, the jobs of existing UK-based staff are being
ditched merely because they can be replaced by lower-paid workers
in India."
Lloyds TSB has
already offshored about 4,000 jobs and with the takeover of
HBOS planned more are expected.
Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary at the union, welcomed
the financial rescue package, but said government should insist
upon its being conditional on Lloyds TSB acting with greater
corporate social responsibility by abandoning its strategy to
offshore jobs.
"The quid pro quo for tax payers money being pumped into
capitalising Lloyds TSB should be that the government insists the
bank's top management abandons its
'jobs to india' policy in order to safeguard the jobs of those
very UK tax payers it has asked financial support from."
Robert Morgan, director at consultancy Hamilton Bailey, which
advises outsourcing providers, said the reality was that more
offshoring was on the way.
"We are more likely to see redundancies and more mechanical work
offshored," he said.
Back office staffing costs can be cut by outsourcing IT and
business processes and front office staffing could be next with the
growth of mobile banking, said Morgan.
"There are moves towards mobile banking at the moment and this
will accelerate because of the credit crunch. It allows banks to
cut costs by automating many processes."
The Lloyds TSB Group Union
last month called on the bank to end its outsourcing of jobs to
India in the wake of its takeover of HBOS.