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British unions have reacted with anger at a Minister's suggestion that employees at a UK call-centre could keep their jobs by relocating to Mumbai, where around a third of their jobs are being moved.
Ms Theresa Villiers MP, the Rail Minister of the coalition government, assured a fellow MP in a letter in early July, seen by Business Line that under the law the staff would be “given the opportunity to transfer to the new service providers”.
Under Britain's Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations, staff either had that opportunity or could take a voluntary redundancy package, or seek alternative positions within the company, she told Sir Alan Beith MP in a letter.
Sir Alan, a Liberal Democrat MP, had sought clarification on what the workers' options were after his office was contacted by constituents concerned about the job transfers.
“I fully understand your concerns about the future of the employees,” wrote Ms Villiers, adding the decision had been an operational one by East Coast, and was therefore outside the remit of its service agreement with the Department of Transport.
Mr Craig Johnston, who heads the regional division of the RMT rail union, described the suggestion as a sign of how “crackers things are”
“It's more than a little bizarre on their rate of pay to suggest they could move to Mumbai to keep a job in a call centre,” he told Business Line .
One-hundred-and-eighty people have lost their jobs as a result of the closure of Baron House, a call-centre belonging to East Coast, a now nationalised train franchise, as two companies, including one that has offices in Mumbai, won the contract to provide the call- centre services.
“East Coast services the north-east of England and we're simply astonished that it would want to export jobs to Mumbai,” added Mr Johnston. “People are furious.”
Opposition to the outsourcing of public services jobs has been mounting in the UK, where the economic recovery remains tentative and the job market challenging (the unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent for the three months ending in May).
Hewlett Packard is facing opposition in its move to outsource jobs “for a UK Department of Work and Pensions contract” to Bangalore, with unions warning that it was likely to open the floodgates for more outsourcing.
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