Abbey moves Indian call centre jobs back to UK

 

© Evening Times Originally published: 26/10/2005

Abbey is preparing an unexpected jobs boost for Glasgow by switching call centre work from India.

The finance giant plans to shut a centre in Bangalore next year and move 1000 jobs to the city and two other sites in England.

The decision has been taken by Spanish bank Santander, which bought Abbey a year ago for £9.5billion.

It follows growing complaints from customers, which included language problems.

Santander will make a formal announcement before the end of the year - two years after Abbey bosses triggered outrage among workers and unions by deciding to switch work to India.

They signed a controversial agreement with US-based MsourcE, which specialises in transaction processing, accounting and pay roll services.

But an Abbey official admitted: "Santander believes in efficient and internal back office functions and, as a result of the acquisition, we are looking at all third-party contracts."

Amicus union leaders have long opposed the so-called off-shoring of jobs especially to low-wage economies such as India where call centre workers are paid up to 80% less than a UK operator.

David Fleming, of Amicus, welcomed the decision to pull out of Bangalore and predicted other UK-based companies will make similar moves.

He said: "This is positive news and we welcome it. Abbey's decision is likely to be the first among many other companies which will slowly realise their future success lies in UK skills."

The company was one of the first British firms to launch an Indian call centre and is thought to be the first to pull out.

Other major players in the financial sector have decided against opening call centres abroad - and especially India.

One was the Royal Bank of Scotland, which opened a call centre at Uddingston for its insurance subsidiary Churchill. The decision led to 100 new jobs for Lanarkshire.

The Evening Times also revealed that Rangers owner David Murray wanted to expand his call centre operations and had looked at India before opting to launch a centre in Clydebank.

Abbey is expected to switch call centre jobs from India to Glasgow, Milton Keynes and Middlesborough in a few months time.

Bt the boost for Glasgow comes just 24 hours after Abbey announced another jobs purge. Officials say an undisclosed number of posts will be axed in the coming year.

And it's thought Glasgow workers at Abbey's Scottish HQ in St Vincent street will be among the casualties.

Bosses admit they have rejected multi-million pound bids for the insurance businesses of Scottish Provident and Scottish Mutual. Both employ up to 3000 staff in Glasgow.

Santander has axed 4000 jobs since the take-over last November.