More British Gas jobs to be sent to India

Energy major British Gas, which has already moved several jobs to India in recent years, is likely to move more jobs there after shortly carrying out redundancies in its office jobs in Leicestershire.

The company has announced staff cuts at its offices in Leicestershire while launching a 90-day consultation period with 300 members of staff and employee unions, reports from Leicester said.

The company did not confirm how many jobs will be lost or where they will be moved, but trade union Unison said they will be moved to India.

The company said the proposed cuts were part of efforts to keep gas and electricity prices low.

A spokesperson for British Gas yesterday confirmed the job losses in Leicestershire, the Leicester Mercury, a leading local daily, reported.

She said: "Having spent significant time exploring alternative options, we have reluctantly concluded that we will now be moving forward with the off-shoring of a number of non-customer

facing roles from the Leicester office."

She said the firm will be focusing efforts on finding other roles for as many of the affected people as possible.

She said the figures of how many people will leave the company had not been finalised and were the subject of continuing talks.

She said: "We are working closely with our people to ensure that all of those leaving the business will be given support, and will be treated fairly, and with respect."

Ed Bratt, the regional official for Unison: "This is sad news that the move is going ahead with jobs being transferred to India.

We have managed to reduce drastically the number of posts affected and we have ensured that the many that are leaving will not depart until the first quarter of next year."

British Gas employs about 2,000 people in Leicestershire. Those affected by the job cuts are in administrative roles dealing with business customers.