Anglo-Dutch
oil giant Shell is moving thousands of IT jobs to India as part of a strategic
review of its IT services which will result in reducing its IT workforce by
between a up 30 per cent by 2006.
Shell’s
global IT services, which employs around 9,300 full-time staff and contractors.
The combination of outsourcing and offshoring is business driven and will
"save a lot of money", a spokeswoman said.
At
the moment Shell’s operations are focused in the UK, The Netherlands, the UK
and Malaysia. Between 1,900 and 2,800 jobs would be lost from these locations.
The
company employs around 1,000 IT staff in the UK, mainly in the north west and
around London. Shell will outsource to IBM in India and Indian-based IT
services firm Wipro.
The
technical staff division of the union Amicus confirmed that it had been
consulted on the move.
By
Lindsay Clark
