UK jobs to go as BT sends IT support to India

Almost 900 UK jobs may be cut after BT awarded a major outsourcing contract to a technical support firm in India.

Staff at Client Logic, a business process outsourcing provider (BPO), have manned BT’s broadband helpdesk for the past five years in offices in Derby and Bristol. But yesterday it was announced that the contract had been offshored to global IT service company HCL.

A spokeswoman from the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) described the decision as a “disgrace” and said that BT was “circumventing its social obligations”. The union was due to meet with company bosses today.

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The Derby and Bristol offices are expected to close next spring.

BT said it would offer displaced workers at Client Logic the possibility of working at one of its call centres in Nottingham, Leicester or Stoke.