TCS staff up in arms over Indian replacement plans

Former Legal & General IT workers say they fear being replaced by Indian workers moved to the UK

L&G IT staff who were transferred to TCS lat year could be replaced by Indian workers who cost less to employ

Some 130 former Legal & General (L&G) IT staff transferred to outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) are at risk of losing their jobs ­ and they say their roles could be filled by Indian workers moved to the UK.

L&G outsourced its IT development in a five-year deal with TCS in June 2008, with staff relocating to the supplier’s offices in Horley and Redhill under a TUPE agreement to offer job security to those affected.

But Computing has learned that last month TCS started a 90-day consultation period involving the ex-L&G staff, trade union Unite and an employee forum, which will aim to establish by April whether the positions will be filled by UK-based Indian staff or if the jobs will be fulfilled in India.

“The consultation process has been fraught with miscommunication and conflicting information,” said a source.

Another worker at a separate TCS office told Computing that staff had been informed last Friday that there are talks about redundancies.

“[Indian workers in the UK] are taking up our jobs, but as they are cheaper TCS has a preference to work with them instead of employees on the UK and Ireland payroll,” said the worker, requesting anonymity.

Fears over discrimination towards UK workers have been voiced by many former L&G employees now working at TCS, said Andrew Case, national secretary at Unite.

“We have asked TCS to address that issue directly and we will also be taking legal advice,” said Case.

“Whether they feel there is discrimination or not, it is important they recognise there is a legitimate concern which needs to be looked at.

“Failure to let people know what is going on will cause morale issues among the employees that are staying and, generally, leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.”

The outsourcer could not reveal what the exact staff mix for the new arrangement is likely to be, but TCS vice president and head of Europe AS Lakshminarayanan said exploring the offshore model was always part of L&G’s plan to increase efficiency.

“What we are not doing is replacing UK employees with Indian staff,” he said. “There will always be people affected by such decisions, but we are looking at how best we can redeploy that resource ­ there is a potential that employees could take on global opportunities within other TCS contracts.”

L&G declined to comment, stating that “this is no longer our issue”.