British outsourcing to India, industrial action likely

Monday, 20 October 2003, 19:30 IST
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LONDON: Slowly but surely, strong opposition is building up to British companies outsourcing jobs to India. While unions are threatening "industrial action", customers are threatening to stop banking with banks that have relocated jobs out of Britain. Chris D'Arcy, a businessman from Swansea in Wales, plans to cancel his company's account with HSBC after the bank relocated switched 130 call centre jobs from Swansea to Asia. In Scotland, call centre employees have drawn up plans to go on strike against the outsourcing phenomenon that is likely to see the total number of Scottish call centre jobs fall from 50,000 to 38,500 -- a drop of 23 percent -- within two years, according to a study by Chester-based Mitial Research. D'Arcy, principal of Swansea Marina-based Bay Estate Agents, said he was appalled at the arbitrary decision of HSBC to put local people out of work. "This is disgusting," he said. "A hundred and thirty jobs is big bucks in a place like Swansea, and I don't want to continue banking with HSBC unless it reverses its decision. "I do not see why they should get my money if they decide to damage the economy of the city I live in with the stroke of an accountant's pen. "I've been in business for 30 years and things come and go but sometimes you just have to make a stand. "I will be writing to my local branch manager to say unless HSBC reverses this decision I will be pulling my account. I can take my business elsewhere. "I have nothing against the Indians or the Chinese who will be doing these jobs but surely if a big bank making lots of profits decides to give jobs to an area they should keep faith with that area," he added. A spokeswoman for the Swansea council confirmed that the authority had renewed its contract with HSBC, but expressed serious concern with the bank's move to relocate jobs to India and other low-cost labour economies. Council leader Lawrence Bailey described the HSBC decision as a severe blow but said Swansea's economy was not over-reliant on call centres. Said Elin Jones, the economic development spokeswoman of a Welsh party: "It's a worrying trend that call centre jobs are being relocated to Asia. "It's happened with BT and now banking services too. The Welsh Assembly Government has to rethink its obsession with call centres -- no sooner are they announced than we are hearing they are off to Asia. "It's worrying for the people involved who are losing their jobs, and it's a blow for the economy of Swansea, which has a high dependence on call centre jobs. "I think HSBC should show loyalty to their staff and to their customers, many hundreds of whom live in the Swansea area. "It's quite shocking how so many services are being moved... I think large multinational companies should respect local services for local customers." Swansea council said the authority had no plans to cancel its account with HSBC and encouraged others to continue working with the bank. A spokeswoman for the authority said: "The council will not add to the unemployment situation in Swansea by putting further bank jobs at risk and, therefore, will continue to do business with HSBC and we expect others to do likewise." Call centres were once hailed as a valuable source of new jobs for Scotland, replacing those lost in the manufacturing industry and more recent mass redundancies at the computer companies of Silicon Glen. Danny Carrigan, Scottish regional organiser for the union Amicus, said call centre strikes were an option. "Industrial action could well be a possibility in selected areas," he said. "When our members are ready, willing and able to take industrial action, we'll give them support. "However, at this moment it might seem to be a bit counter-productive in some areas to take industrial action without thinking it through and we want to take the political route, lobbying politicians and getting public support." Carrigan said: "We were told call centre jobs were going to be filling the void. But what we have seen is after two or three years, they are disappearing." However, the Royal Bank of Scotland, which employs 90,000 staff in Britain, said they had no current plans to transfer jobs to India. RBS said it had carried out a study on a possible move but after "considering all the factors, we have decided not to pursue this option".
Source: IANS