BT is cutting 4,000 contract call centre jobs in India and
bringing some of the work back to the UK.
In contrast, Lloyds TSB is continuing to cut its UK workforce
while its staff in India remain out of the firing line.
A BT spokesman said BT's service provision has improved and it
no longer needs as many call centre workers in India. "We will
bring some of the jobs to the UK, and they will be taken up by
staff who have been re-skilled."
He said BT does not know how many will be repatriated.
"BT has a responsibility to find work for its permanent
workforce and this is just one measure it is taking to protect its
direct workforce," said a BT statement.
Meanwhile, the
death by a thousand cuts at Lloyds Banking Group continues. It
this week announced 1,202 job reductions as a consequence of
removing overlaps and duplication with its recent acquisition HBOS.
It has cut thousands of jobs in recent weeks.
"The Lloyds Banking Group is haemorrhaging jobs by the
thousands, with 8,700 job losses announced over the last 12 weeks,
but it still refuses to abandon its disreputable and discredited
policy of Offshoring Jobs to India," said the Lloyds TSB Group
Union.
"The bank expects UK taxpayers to bail it out to the tune of
over £1,000 each and then makes the jobs of those very same
taxpayers redundant because it prefers to employ workers in India
instead."
Lloyds TSB said, “The group’s policy is to use natural turnover
and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise
and knowledge within the group. Where it is necessary for
colleagues to leave the company, it will look to achieve this by
making less use of contractors and agency colleagues.”