Financial services union Amicus is launching an anti-offshoring campaign at the Friends Provident annual conference to challenge the export of UK jobs to overseas centres.
UK life and pensions group Friends Provident announced in June last year that it had launched a production facility in Pune, India to handle processing of new business applications from IFAs.
At the time the facililty employed 50 staff, although this was expanded to 100 employees in the three months following the launch. Friends Provident insisted that all the positions created in India were additional to UK jobs.
The facility is managed by local IT services firm Wipro Spectramind, which also provides the group with software developement services.
Amicus says Friends Provident must prove the business benefits of any offshoring decisions and illustrate the benefits for all stakeholders - including consumers and employees.
Barry Jones, Amicus regional officer, says: "We would like to know how Friends Provident intend to prove that offshoring is a decision necessary to secure the companies future rather than just a way to cut costs and increase shareholder profits."