British Gas, which plans to transfer 2,000 jobs to India in a bid to save up to £30m pounds annually, has asked its staff to go to India to train their successors.
The firm plans to ut the jobs in its billing department and transfer the work to Delhi.
Around 30 people have already volunteered to be seconded to India for seven to 12 weeks to teach staff how to use the new computerised billing system. But the British workers won’t be guaranteed a job afterwards, according to a report in The Mirror newspaper.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Unions have said they will fight the job cuts, which will save the company millions of pounds a year in salary costs.
A British Gas spokesman told the newspaper: “We are not embarrassed about this. It is an open and simple invitation to staff who may want to play a part in this. We can’t guarantee jobs to people who do as this would penalise those, for example with families, who feel they can’t be away from home this long.”
