Tesco, the country’s largest private sector employer, is to
outsource its IT support and invoice processing functions to India, leading to
the loss of around 420 jobs in the UK.
The supermarket giant has guaranteed to find jobs for
directly employed staff who are ‘flexible’, but many of the jobs affected are
for agency and contract workers who will not be found new roles.
Tesco said it makes sense to transfer jobs because of labour
costs and its increasingly international status. The company stressed that it
plans to create 15,000 jobs in the UK by next April.
The move, which follows the launch of a small-scale support
centre in Bangalore last year, will affect jobs at the supermarket giant’s
Cardiff, Welwyn Garden City and Dundee offices.
Retail union Usdaw said it was encouraged that two-thirds of
Tesco staff affected by the opening of the Bangalore office were found new
roles within the company.
Tesco employs more than 237,000 across the UK.
By Daniel Thomas
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