British TU threatens stir against BG’s India plans

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New Delhi, July 20: The outsourcing ghost is haunting UK yet again. Recent reports that British Gas (BG) plans to axe 2,000 jobs in the Kingdom, out of which about a 1,000 including “back office” jobs, would move to India, have spread panic among workers, especially in Manchester, where four BG offices are located, according to newspaper reports there.

Interestingly, in their anger against offshoring jobs to India, trade unions are making much ado over the data protection issue.

Though not overt, the reference surely is to the recent Indian call centre case where a British reporter was said to have got hold of classified data by offering money to an Indian employee.

Unison, the UK’s largest union, in a release on its web site, has threatened action and even a strike, if need be, against outsourcing of jobs. In the release, Steve Bloomfield, Unison’s head of utilities, terming the job losses as “completely unacceptable”, says: “Offshoring also brings its own problems of data protection and regulation of customer information.”

According to Unison, British Gas plans to move backroom work to India where the company claims they can make a 400% saving in operation costs.

This would mean the closure of offices in Gould Street and Talbot Road, Manchester, Oldham and Solihull. “No-one should be fooled that these savings will go towards reducing customers’ bills or improving services,” Mr Bloomfield adds.

However, rumours seem to be spreading fast that the jobs will go in April.

A spokesman for British Gas was quoted as saying: “It will obviously be a difficult time for the staff but we will try and re-deploy those affected.”

Meanwhile, Roger Mckenzie of UK’s Trade Union Centre (TUC), also lashed out at BG in a release: “This move...to offshore up to 2,000 jobs as part of the introduction of new computer systems is devastating news for the West Midlands economy. Yet again we are seeing a major employer casting aside large numbers of their employees on the basis that they can buy labour cheaper on the Indian sub-continent.”