Unions protest BBC's plan to move jobs to India
Monday, 23 October 2006, 19:30 IST
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London: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is moving its finance-based work from Britain to India. In a statement, the corporation said it was outsourcing the work to Indian tech company Xansa in a contract worth around 85 million pounds over 10 years. According to the BBC, the deal would save the corporation nearly 200 million pounds over the life of the contract. After the announcement, unions and different political parties in Britain expressed their concern over the deal. "The union fears there may be job losses and I have grave concern about the security of financial details of BBC staff," said Gerry Morrissey, deputy general secretary of the UK union for broadcasting, film and allied sectors. "We will call for an immediate meeting with the BBC about how this will affect staff employed in the finance area and to discuss the security of personal details of the BBC's 26,000 employees," he said. Xansa will deliver finance and accounting services across the BBC, including purchasing and sales transaction processing, artist and contributor payments, financial management and project accounting, payroll processing and expenses. "I believe this is an excellent deal for the BBC, and I am confident that Xansa will help us further to transform our finance and business processes," Zarin Patel, BBC group finance director, was quoted as saying by the Herald newspaper. A spokesperson for Xansa said around 250 people would be working on the new BBC contract from the company's Chennai location.
Source: IANS
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