Lloyds TSB union calls for end to offshoring

Banking union LTU (Lloyds TSB Group Union) which represents around 40,000 staff at Lloyds TSB, is calling for the bank to end its heavy use of the offshoring of banking and IT roles.

The call comes amid concerns over even more job losses when the bank completes its controversial takeover of stricken rival HBOS, the biggest casualty so far of the international credit crunch.

"As part of our negotiations on the takeover, the union will be insisting that to help mitigate large scale job losses in the UK as the new combined bank seeks to remove overlaps and duplication - saving 1 billion by 2011 - the bank should agree to immediately freeze all ongoing programmes that involve transferring yet more jobs - such as IT and back office processing - to India," the union said in a statement.

LTU is also calling for the return of around 3,000 processing and IT jobs to be repatriated to the UK from India, in an effort to preserve jobs for British-based staff of Lloyds TSB and HBOS that might otherwise be made redundant.

There is precedent for this. In March 2007 Lloyds TSB closed a call centre in Mumbai and returned the headcount to the UK.

"Rather than making the jobs of existing staff redundant, the Lloyds TSB Board should put an immediate halt to transferring jobs to India and return jobs to the UK for those staff that it currently employs itself," said Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary at LTU.

"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 UK economy"

In July, rival bank Barclays announced plans to offshore 1,800 IT jobs.