Lloyds ships UK jobs to India

LLOYDS TSB announced today the closure of a call centre with the loss of almost 1,000 jobs as it said some services will be transferred to India.

The customer contact centre in Newcastle will be shut by the end of 2004 in a gradual move which will see other UK call centres, as well as the bank's operation in India, take over the work.

At the same time, Barclays said it may contract out up to 350 jobs in Hastings, possibly to India.

Earlier this month, HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, said it will move 4,000 jobs to in India and China.

Today's announcement by Lloyds will affect a total of 986 jobs in Newcastle but no other call centres will be affected, said the bank.

'This has been a very difficult decision and has only been made after considerable thought and discussion,' it said.

'We operate in a fiercely competitive environment and it is vital that we find ways of running our business effectively and competitively.'

Workers in India can be paid less than one-sixth of what British call centre staff receive, the Lloyds TSB Group Union said today.

It feared 'many thousands' more jobs from within the group could be lost to Asia.

The union has planned a series of protests against the job losses and hopes to raise 500,000 signatures by petitioning branches.

Assistant general secretary Steve Tatlow said: 'It is unacceptable that Lloyds TSB should be closing its Newcastle call centre with such serious consequences for its staff and the North East. Its actions put pressure on other companies to follow suit.

'The bank's excuses for closing the call centre are weak on all grounds other than to cut costs at the expense of UK staff. It argues that staff turnover has been a problem but has wholly failed to address this through paying competitive salaries and making Lloyds TSB a better place to work.

'We will be seeking to fully engage the North East community MPs, councils, business organisations and customers in our campaign to drop its plans to close the Newcastle call centre.

'We will also be stepping up our petition of customers outside Lloyds TSB branches to show the bank that customers find its plans wholly unacceptable.'