Leader: Offshoring acceptance

Today saw the somewhat unsurprising news - taken in the context of the current business climate - that Barclays Bank is moving its IT support centre to India. Despite the sting of the ensuing job cuts, moving IT services abroad has become a common occurrence in the UK.

It's understandable that companies are taking advantage of the cheap labour option, especially when IT services and support in particular can now easily be made available anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately, redundancies are a side effect of outsourcing, and where bad news looms, trade unions are usually nearby to oppose such moves.

What's interesting about this Barclays announcement is that the union sounded less aggressive than usual.

Technology union Amicus said it doesn't "welcome" the offshoring of jobs but has an agreement with Barclays in which the employer must "maximise redundancy" and offer "the best voluntary redundancy packages".

The response smacked of acceptance of the fact that outsourcing is inevitable in a world where firms can reap such huge returns from it.

This attitude could be a good thing if only because the sorts of deals it leads to can work well for all parties involved. Being chums with a union can help a company brush off much of the negative publicity it usually receives when the term 'job cuts' is sounded.

For the union and workers, although the outcome is still unclear for the Barclays employees, fewer jobs can be lost outright and those that do end up leaving will walk out with hefty severance packages.

Which is not to say outsourcing or offshoring is the right decision for every company or IT department. It's just that it's part of the larger trend of globalisation that no one union is going to be able to stop. So now it's time to make the best of a non-ideal situation.