Outrage in Britain over bank's India outsourcing plan

Monday, 01 December 2003, 20:30 IST
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LONDON: People are up in arms against a bank's plans to close one of its call centres in Britain and relocate jobs to India. In 2001, the local council in Newcastle had paid 230,000 pounds of public money to help set up a call centre for the Lloyds TSB bank. People in the area now say the move to close the Tyneside call centre would mean a loss of 960 jobs. A major campaign is underway to save the jobs. The bank is likely to face demands to pay back the taxpayers' money if a threat to switch the operation to India is carried out. The cash was handed over by Newcastle Council just two years ago as part of a package to persuade Lloyds TSB to locate in the city. The council also provided a recruitment and specialist training programme for staff who got jobs at the call centre. Lloyds TSB has now announced plans to close the centre in December 2004 and move the operation to India. The Lloyds TSB Group Union, backed by the Newcastle-based newspaper, Evening Chronicle, has launched a major campaign to save the jobs and leaders of Newcastle City Council have now joined the battle. A local councillor said: "The U.K. economy cannot cope with the potential loss of jobs if that trickle becomes a flood. We have to make a stand. I feel very angry about what has happened and I'm fully behind the staff. Our first port of call is to save the jobs but if the worst comes to the worst we would look at ways of getting the money back." David Clelland, Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, said: "We would certainly expect the local authority to try and recover the money if the centre does close, though we all hope to avoid that. The council was assured by the company when it opened that it would be a long term and sustainable operation and the money was advanced on that basis." Councillor Peter Arnold, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats on Newcastle City Council, said: "If Lloyds TSB close down the call centre and move the operation to India they should repay the money. They are morally obliged to do that even if there is no legal obligation." A Lloyds TSB spokeswoman said: "At the time that we set up our contact centre in Newcastle we clearly did not know exactly how the business and the employment market would develop. "We operate in a fiercely competitive environment and it is vital we find ways of running our business effectively and competitively in order to continue to invest."
Source: IANS
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