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Hundreds of UK CSC staff face chop, told to train Indian replacements

IT giant wants to suck brains amid 750 layoffs

Computer Science Corporation (CSC) workers heading for the chopping block in Britain have been asked to train their replacements in India and the Czech Republic.

Some 750 staff in the UK have been threatened with redundancy under the IT giant's global workforce shakeup, and roughly 200 roles will be moved offshore.

CSC - perhaps best known for its part in the NHS's patient records database fiasco - claimed it will "compensate" staff who share their knowhow with employees beyond Blighty's shores. But trade union Unite wants a better payoff package on the table.

"Workers who are paying the ultimate price of their jobs, will be expected to help make themselves redundant by training others," said Ian Tonks, a Unite national officer.

Describing the request to drill off-shore workers as an "indignity", he added: "This is totally unacceptable and the union is demanding that CSC negotiates a proper package for workers that recognises their contribution and loyalty. The company must also do everything to keep compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum."

Tonks, who has been in the role since January, told us Unite is not balloting CSC members for industrial action. "We are hoping CSC comes to the [negotiating] table," he said.

In a tinned statement, a spokeswoman for the integrator said:

We estimate that up to 750 employees will be impacted in the UK, all of whom will be supported professionally, compassionately and with assistance, where necessary, in their transition from CSC. We continue to explore other opportunities within CSC to place our UK employees. A small number of CSC's UK employees are supporting the knowledge transfer for specific roles moving to other CSC locations, and they are being additionally compensated.

In the not too distant past, IT behemoths Capita and HP had planned to offshore Brit workers to India, but in the case of Capita a customer backlash halted the process - and HP agreed to keep UK staff on the Department of Work and Pensions contract due to the sensitive nature of the work. ®

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