National Grid jobs 'could be outsourced to India'
National Grid, in a letter to the GMB Union, said it was considering making redundancies at its Warwick, Northampton and Newcastle sites. An alternative option was to outsource work to other countries. "Over £3 million in savings have been identified and, although the process has not yet been completed, senior management has now indicated this will not be enough and jobs will go. Workers at the Newcastle office agreed to strike for 24 hours. Gary Smith, the union's national secretary for energy, said union members were looking to spread industrial action across the country. He said "The company is planning to outsource and offshore some of the work it does to low-wage economies such as India. We think there is a fault in that."
A spokesman for National Grid said: "National Grid has a duty to make sure it is delivering its services to customers as efficiently and effectively as possible…We have been reviewing our internal support services right across the company – including those carried out at our Warwick office…But this is just one department at Warwick and the review of shared services does not affect the majority of staff working there." He said no decisions had yet been made, adding: "We recognise that these are sensitive times for employees and we are supporting our staff in every way we can…We don't expect to make any decisions until early autumn and we are committed to consulting our employees and trade unions throughout the process."
