Government Contractor Forced to Abandon Plan to Send Live Records to India.
A campaign by PCS members has forced Government Contractor Hewlett Packard to abandon Plans to offshore work to India saving 200 jobs. Hewlett Packard had proposed to offshore the work, which involves the maintenance of the records of millions of people for the Department for Work and Pensions, before the end of this year. It is believed to have been the first time that a Government Contractor had proposed sending the live records of so many people overseas.
PCS launched a vigorous campaign in defence of members jobs, and against the principle of off-shoring. Members inside Hewlett Packard supported the call for industrial action; members in Capgemini and Fujitsu in Telford and in Worthing contacted about a dozen local MP's; National Officials gave press interviews highlighting our cause and PCS commissioned research into the true cost of off-shoring.
This decision is a victory for union members and shows what can be achieved, if we stick together. Thank you for everyone who contacted their MP's, your help made a big difference.
I say WELL DONE to all the Union Members which fought and won against this stupid idea of Hewlett Packard to relocate the management of millions of personal records held by the Department of Work and Pensions to India in order to save a few pennies and it would have only been a few pennies as well, when you consider the loss of jobs here in the UK. When you add up the cost to the taxpayer of redundancy, unemployment benefits, loss of tax revenue. Yes we all know it except the Government, seemingly. And then what about the security of all these personal records in India? We have all see in past years where thousands of personal records have gone missing through government departments ineptitude.This proposal to Hewlett Packard must have had government approval somewhere down the line. But their only thoughts appear to have been only to save money without considering the bigger picture. It appears to me that nobody in government does consider the bigger picture when proposing all these cuts in public services. Yes the economy is in dire straights as indeed it is throught all of Europe and the USA and savings have to be made. Yes we all accept that, but where savings are made have to be thoroughly thought out and carefully considered before any cuts in Public Services are implimented. So I say well done to all Union Members who fought for the retraction of this proposal which could in teh long run been disastrous to the economy and to the people of this country.
ReplyDeleteIan Iosson
Buzzard Production Chemist