London, Sep 24 (INDITOP) The union representing the majority of Lloyds TSB bank staff has called on the bank to end its outsourcing of jobs to India in the wake of its recent takeover of Scottish banking and insurance giant Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS).
The Lloyds TSB Group Union (LTU) has been arguing for some time that jobs that have been transferred to India over the past five years should be returned to Britain.
“As part of our negotiations on the takeover, the union will be insisting on that to help mitigate large scale job losses in Britain. As the new combined bank seeks to remove overlaps and duplication – saving one billion pounds ($2 billion) by 2011 – it should agree to immediately freeze all ongoing programmes that involve transferring yet more jobs to India,” said the LTU.
Its call covers IT and back office function jobs. The LTU also wants the bank to “commence plans to return to Britain the estimated 3,000 jobs that have already been transferred to India, in order to safeguard existing British jobs that would otherwise be lost as Lloyds TSB and HBOS operations merge together”.
Steve Tatlow, LTU assistant general secretary, told Computer Weekly, a British IT portal: “If the new bank is to be so dominant in Britain, it is imperative that it commits itself to supporting British customers only from Britain.
“By ditching its ‘jobs to India’ strategy, the Lloyds TSB board would be shouting loud and clear that it genuinely is committed to the wellbeing of its customers, staff and the British economy.”
Lloyds took over HBOS on Sep 18, creating a super bank with 38 million customers. HBOS became a victim of the credit crunch, plunging Britain into its worst ever financial gloom. HBOS is the holding company for the Bank of Scotland Plc, which operates the Bank of Scotland – Britain’s oldest commercial bank – the Halifax Bank and a host of other banking and commercial companies.