HSBC intends to switch work to Asia

The work will be transferred to China, India and Malaysia by the end of 2005, HSBC has confirmed.

The jobs will be lost from sites in Swansea, Birmingham, Sheffield and Brentwood.

Bank workers' union Unifi accused the bank of putting "profits before people", and said it would consider taking industrial action to fight the plans.

"HSBC's move will be the biggest single export of finance jobs from the UK to Asia," it added.

HAVE YOUR SAY It's ironic, half of Asia is trying to get into Britain as all the jobs go in the opposite direction! Fred, England Send us your comments

Compulsory cuts

Staff at the four sites were told of the job losses on Thursday afternoon and HSBC said it was planning to tell the rest of the UK workforce on Friday.

Compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out, a spokesman said.

HSBC chief executive Bill Dalton said the job cuts were "essential" for the bank's continued success.

Several UK firms have begun outsourcing call centres to Asia

"As one of the world's largest financial services companies HSBC has a responsibility to all its stakeholders to remain efficient and competitive," he said.

"This includes increasing productivity and allocating resources to both developed and emerging markets."

Unifi said it was "very, very angry" at the prospect of compulsory redundancies.

It was also "furious" at the scale and pace of HSBC's cost cutting move - "1,500 jobs to go in 2004, a further 2,000 in 2005 and a further 500 in 2006".

'Backlash' warning

Official Rob O'Neill said the prospect of compulsory redundancies meant the "gloves were off".

"We will fight tooth and nail to get the bank to reconsider its actions," he said.

He promised a campaign with local communities affected by these redundancies, as well as consumer interest groups, and HSBC's customers.

We will fight tooth and nail to get the bank to reconsider its actions Rob O'Neill, Unifi

Amicus, which also has members among the HSBC workforce, said officials would be seeking urgent talks with the bank to try to save as many jobs as possible.

The union's joint general secretary Roger Lyons also warned that the bank's customers and shareholders may prove unimpressed by the move.

"Companies which outsource jobs without consultation with staff or policy holders must be prepared for a backlash from the public," he said.

Growing trend

HSBC says the UK job cuts are part of a plan begun in 2000 when it started transferring some of its back office and customer support work abroad.

The bank had already announced 1,400 UK job cuts this year, blaming tough economic conditions.

HSBC's decision reflects a growing trend among UK firms to move customer support and call centre jobs to Asia to cut costs.

British Telecom last month drew protests over its plans to switch its directory enquiries service in India, as did insurer Prudential last year.

Just days ago there were reports that rail companies were considering transferring their national enquiry service to India.

HSBC employs about 55,000 people in Britain.

It has said that by the end of 2006 it expects about 87% [48,000] of its staff to be based in the UK and about 13% [7,000] to be in service centres in Asia.