DWP offshoring moves leading to PCS strike threat

PCS union members working at supplier HP voted in favour of industrial action over plans to axe 200 staff in the north-east working on the Adams 2 contract for the Department of Work and Pensions and outsource their functions to India.

In the ballot, more than 90% per cent of the turnout voted for industrial action short of a strike, with the aim to disrupt the knowledge transfer set to take place this month when staff from India liaise with their UK counterparts.

PCS said at this stage the government and HP were not showing signs of wanting to resolve the issue but hopes the action will "focus the minds".

There are 25 million records on the DWP national database including details on benefit payments, that would be handled by any proposed Indian staff. For its part, HP is saying that it has begun consultation on the proposed transfer of "some roles to our operations in India" effective in 2012, subject to final client approval. This relates, it says, to work at a small number of sites in the UK and that, "We are working to redeploy staff affected into other roles within HP and are optimistic that we can avoid compulsory redundancies."

Both the Cabinet Office and DWP have to ratify the deal before it goes ahead in the face of growing political unhappiness about the idea. Thus in a written response to questions raised in the House of Commons by Tyneside Northeast MP Mary Glindon, Prime Minister David Cameron last month agreed that "British employers should employ British workers" but that as DWP ICT services were under contract by a number of suppliers of which HP was one and that the agreement allowed for the provision of some services from outside the UK and that, "We are looking closely at the DWP's approach to the offshoring work by its suppliers with the aim of minimising any impact on the UK jobs market," said Cameron.

The union says that the DWP-HP situation is just the tip of the iceberg and much more outsourcing of compuetr staff - in the private sector predominantly to start with - will come as a result of moves to cut costs by central government.