The union that represents workers at Lloyds TSB said that the
bank's strategy to
send UK IT jobs overseas is less acceptable than Lindsey Oil
Refinery attempts to cut costs by shipping in workers from other
parts of Europe.
Workers in the oil refinery industry across the UK have held
wildcat strikes in support of skilled UK workers being overlooked
for jobs in favour of workers from abroad. This has caused anger
amongthe oil refinerybusiness as well as the general public.
The workers have now
voted to return
to work after the company agreed to make 102 jobs available to
UK workers.
The union claims the fact that Lloyds TSB has received financial
support from taxpayers is more reason for it to protect UK jobs.
The government now owns more than40% of the bank. Lloyds TSB has
already offshored about 4,000 jobs and with the integration of HBOS
planned more are expected. The bank is in the process of sending
another 450 IT roles to India.
"The Lindsey Refinery protests concern new vacancies being
denied to UK-based staff, whereas Lloyds is ditching the jobs of
its existing UK staff merely because it can replace them with lower
paid workers in India," said the union.
It said by halting the transfer of further jobs to India and
returning to the UK the 4,000 that have already been transferred to
India, Lloyds TSB could help safeguard jobs.
Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary at LTU has said,"There
can be no excuse whatsoever for existing UK-based staff losingtheir
jobs merely because they can be replaced by lower paid workers in
India."
"The Government must not let the new Lloyds Banking Group get
away with cutting tens of thousands of jobs without taking all
reasonable steps to avoid compulsory redundancies. This must
include using its massive stake in the company as leverage to force
it to abandon its offshoring policy."