Now Abbey moves 400 call centre jobs to India

Abbey is the latest UK bank to announce a major offshoring move that will see about 400 call centre jobs moved to India.

The bank announced today that it will close call centres in Bradford, Derby and Warrington, and transfer some current account enquiry operations to a centre in India. The move follows a small-scale pilot that Abbey carried out with Bangalore-based company MsourcE.

The latest changes are part of a wide-ranging review and re-branding of Abbey's operations that began in February 2003, after its disastrous move into the wholesale banking market led to a record annual loss of almost £1bn.

Redundancies will be made, although Abbey said it will work to redeploy and relocate UK staff where possible.

Jeanette Coyle, from the Abbey National Group Union, hit out at the UK government for allowing the flow of UK IT and call centre jobs to India to continue unabated.

"We understand it is a global economy, but we are struggling to understand this," she told silicon.com. "We have to acknowledge this bank is allowed to run its business as it wants but we don't like it."

She said that although job losses are inevitable, the union has managed to secure enhanced measures for its members. These include the guarantee of at least six months advance warning of closures, relocation packages, travel expenses for staff who will have to commute longer distances, and enhanced flexible working.

Abbey also announced the closure of its Edinburgh Scottish Provident customer service operation, with 900 jobs set to transfer to Glasgow.

The move is part of a reorganisation that will see Abbey reduce the number of administrative centres from 40 to just five - in Belfast, Bradford, Glasgow, Milton Keynes and Sheffield. The bank said it will invest £25m during the next three years in IT, training and the working environment.

Luqman Arnold, CEO of Abbey, said in a statement: "We have taken some tough business decisions today that are absolutely necessary to the health of Abbey's future and for giving our customers better service at a competitive price."

Earlier this week, UK building society Nationwide became one of the first companies to declare it will not move jobs to offshore locations such as India because of the wider impact on service and the local communities.

Recent research by ContactBabel has also warned of a customer backlash against firms that move jobs offshore.