Amicus throws weight behind outsourcing row

One of the country's biggest trade unions, Amicus, has become the latest body to urge the Government to hold an enquiry into the impact that the outsourcing and offshoring of service sector jobs will have on the UK economy.

As reported in UKTECH, the influential Trade and Industry Select Committee has already indicated that it will review the situation regarding the impact outsourcing has had as part of an overall review of the development of the IT sector in the UK. UKTECH will be providing a facility for members of its network to participate in the forthcoming consultation. It is expected that further details and terms of reference will be available in the next few weeks.

The Communications Workers Union has orchestrated a campaign against moves by BT to outsource some of its call centre to India.

Amicus MSF is the country's largest trade union for skilled and professional people with more than 400,000 members organising in both the public and private sectors.

Its general secretary, Roger Lyons, has posted the following message under the heading "Charting A Solution to the Offshoring of Jobs":

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Roger Lyons

Martin O’Neill MP, Chair of the Trade and Industry Select Committee, has already undertaken to investigate the issue as a prelude to a full commission of enquiry which Amicus has requested in writing from Patricia Hewitt.

Amicus, along with other service sector unions including CWU, Unify and Connect, are concerned that the cost savings from outsourcing work from the UK to the developing world are so big that it will be impossible for UK companies, particularly in insurance, banking and IT, to refuse.

Deloitte Consultancy has predicted that 2 million jobs currently based in western economies will migrate to India by 2008 and Amicus is predicting that we can expect 200,000 call centre and back office processing jobs to leave British soil by the end of the decade.

The response from Government so far is that it is not their role to dictate how and where companies make their money. There is also a feeling that the outsourcing phenomena is merely a symptom caused by the UK economy gearing up the industrial food chain to become highly skilled and ideas based.

The picture the unions, as well as major consultancy firms including Accenture and Addeco, are painting is very different. What is appearing is a very sophisticated overseas contact centre industry which has the capacity to do almost every job - from face to face contact, actuarial, legal and technical support - that is currently done in the UK and at a fraction of the cost.

The impact could be devastating; hurting most the same communities that suffered worst from the collapse of manufacturing. David Fleming, National Secretary for Finance, has predicted that, unless we take action now, the UK could be left as a nation of 'fat cats and hairdressers with nothing in between'.

John Major’s Government held a commission to examine the demise of manufacturing. It looked at what had happened to the economy in the 80s. Amicus wants the current Government to be more pro-active and hold an independent commission into what is going to happen in the first decade of the millennium and ask the question - ‘if the service sector was there to replace traditional smokestack manufacturing what is next?’.

Any enquiry must investigate the impact that offshoring and outsourcing will have on the different industrial sectors affected. It must assess the likely effect on employment and the economy on a regional and national basis and how companies who decide to offshore engage in corporate social ethics.

We need to also consider a range of regulatory measures in terms of administration charges for companies selling life and pension products and the lifting of the 1% cap imposed by the Treasury on the Sandler Suite of products. Issues that continue to put pressure on UK based companies to cut costs by whatever means necessary.

And just as importantly the Government needs to focus on where and how we can capitalise on our competitive edge and skills base and identify what investments need to be made to address the areas where we are weak.

Technological progress has made change inevitable. It is our job to best protect the interests of our members to make sure that we manage that change, within the context of a global economy, where nobody loses out. We are working with our sister trade unions in the UK and at the same time strengthening our contact with India trade unions.

Amicus is leading a campaign that is looking to the future and looking to the modern world of work. When we use that phrase now we don't mean just the place in which we work but instead refer to our entire planet. Just as they say that the sun never sets on a paperless office, we need to also ensure that we deliver a modern progressive world of work where union members find solutions working in harmony with employers and governments alike, right around the globe.