Lloyds TSB Group Union demands end of 'jobs to India'

The independent trade union representing the majority of Lloyds TSB Staff - Lloyds TSB Group Union - is to demand that, following its takeover of HBOS, the Lloyds TSB Board should ditch its strategy of offshoring jobs to India.

LTU has been arguing for some time that jobs that have been transferred to India over the past five years should be returned to the UK.

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.

Commence plans to return to the UK the estimated 3,000 jobs that have already been transferred to India, in order to safeguard existing UK jobs that would otherwise be lost as Lloyds TSB and HBOS operations merge together.

Such a move would repeat LTU's earlier success when in March last year - under pressure from the Union's 'Save UK Jobs' campaign - Lloyds TSB closed its Call Centre in Mumbai, returning all jobs to the UK.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Until now, Lloyds TSB's Offshoring Strategy has been a betrayal of its stated commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. It has been bad for Customers, bad for Staff, bad for the UK Economy and bad for those Communities where large numbers of jobs have been lost merely because UK Staff could be replaced by staff receiving substantially lower pay in India.

The new, combined Bank could therefore provide real, concrete indication of its commitment to existing jobs in the UK by immediately announcing that it is to stop offshoring work to India and return all jobs that have already been transferred there back to the UK.

Government Pressure Required

LTU believes that - having given its support to the takeover of HBOS - the Government also has a role to play in exerting pressure on Lloyds TSB to ditch its 'Jobs To India' Strategy.

Rather than appearing to concentrate only on safeguarding jobs in Scotland - through insertion on page one of the formal takeover document a clause that "the management focus is to keep jobs in Scotland", it should instead direct its attention to retaining jobs across the whole of the UK: whether in Scotland, South Wales, Halifax, Bristol, Brighton, Gloucester, Birmingham, London or for that matter any other parts of the UK where there are large concentrations of staff with jobs at risk in the newly merged Bank.

Union Comments

In commenting on the Takeover, Steve Tatlow, Assistant General Secretary at Lloyds TSB Group Union, has said:

"If the new Bank is to be so dominant in the UK, it is imperative that it commits itself to supporting UK customers only from 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"

"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"