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PRESS RELEASE: "Ending 'Jobs To India' Policy Should Be Condition Of Government's Rescue Package"
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Date: 8th Oct 2008
The independent trade union representing the majority of Lloyds TSB Staff - Lloyds TSB Group Union - is insisting that the Government's huge rescue package for Lloyds TSB should be conditional upon the Bank's Board agreeing to ditch its strategy of offshoring jobs to India.
So far, around 4,000 Lloyds TSB jobs have already been offshored to India and the Bank - together with HBOS, which it is in he process of Taking Over - has plans to offshore many thousands more.
It is completely unacceptable that these are not jobs that are no longer required. Instead, the jobs of existing UK-based staff are being ditched merely because they can be replaced by lower-paid workers in India. This indicates a total lack of Corporate Social Responsibility by the Lloyds TSB Board to its UK Customers who prefer their accounts being managed in the UK, its existing UK Staff whose jobs are being needlessly lost and the UK economy.
By abandoning its 'Jobs To India' strategy, Lloyds TSB could also help to mitigate the scale of UK job reductions - predicted as being anything between 14,000 and 40,000 - that will inevitably arise when it begins removing overlaps and duplication during the merging of the two Banks.
It is certainly hypocritical that Lloyds TSB should have gone cap in hand to the Chancellor asking that billions of pounds of UK Tax Payers money be put at risk to strengthen its capitalisation, whilst at the same time it is damaging the UK Economy by needlessly transferring jobs abroad.
Union Comments
In commenting on the Government's massive Rescue Package, Steve Tatlow, Assistant General Secretary at Lloyds TSB Group Union, has said:
"We welcome the rescue package, but believe the Government should insist upon it being conditional on Lloyds TSB acting with greater Corporate Social Responsibility; in particular by abandoning its 'Jobs To India' strategy"
"It is ironic that having over the last five years ditched the jobs of many existing staff - UK Tax Payers - and planning the offshoring of many thousands more, merely because it can replace them with low paid workers in India, Lloyds TSB's Board should have now gone cap in hand to the Government asking for billions of pounds of financial assistance from those very same Tax Payers"
"The quid pro quo for Tax Payers money being pumped into capitalising Lloyds TSB should be that the Government insists the Bank's Top Management abandons its 'Jobs To India' policy in order to safeguard the jobs of those very UK Tax Payers it has asked financial support from"
About Lloyds TSB Group Union (LTU)
Lloyds TSB Group Union (LTU) is the largest independent trade union representing staff working across the Lloyds TSB Group, with over 40,000 members.
In large parts of the Bank, LTU represents over 90% of all managers and staff.
LTU has campaigned tirelessly and successfully in opposition to Lloyds TSB's Offshoring Policy, collecting almost 500,000 signatures from customers for a petition opposing their banking arrangements being handled abroad. The Union is recognised as having not only considerably slowed down the pace at which jobs have been transferred to India, but was also instrumental in building customer pressure leading to the closure of the Bank's call centre in Mumbai, with jobs returning to the UK.
Only one other trade union, Unite, represents staff within the Bank. However, with less than 3,000 members, it has only a peripheral presence within the Lloyds TSB Group.
For More Information
If you would like more information, you should contact Steve Tatlow on 01234 262868 or email to Steve.Tatlow@ltu.co.uk.
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