Financial services union Amicus has condemned Scottish Widows' plans to shift 140 jobs from Edinburgh to an offshore centre in India.
The insurance company announced plans in April last year to create 50 jobs at a new centre in Bangalore, India. At the time Scottish Widows insisted that no UK jobs will be lost as a result. But now the firm plans to move 140 positions from its Edinburgh headquarters to the Bangalore centre.
In a statement, Amicus says it has been consulted on the latest move and it will not accept any compulsory job losses.
David Fleming, national secretary, Amicus, says: "Whilst we will work with the company to ensure members keep a job, we continue to believe that offshoring is short-sighted cost cutting and of no benefit to the UK economy. We are concerned that this is another example of the 'follow my leader' approach that many financial organisations have taken."
Scottish Widows is owned by Lloyds TSB, which has implemented an extensive offshoring programme and expects to employ 2500 staff at its Indian operations by the end of the year.
Amicus estimates that since October 2003 there have been 18,000 job losses due to the offshoring of call centre and back office work to cheap offshore centres in Asia.