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IBM offshores 500 UK jobs to India

Contractors jobs sub-contracted

Exclusive IBM is to move 500 UK jobs to India as part of a reorganisation of its outsourcing business, according to internal memos seen by The Register.

According to the IBM memo, the consultation on the reorganisation involves 6,100 people. "We believe that between 1,000 and 1,500 people may have to consider taking IBM Standard Mobility clause to fulfil the requirements of the ABO [Assignment Based Organisation]", the memo states. So it appears IBM's plans to send jobs to India forms part of a much larger plan.

According to a company insider, 350 out of 500 posts in IBM Strategic Outsourcing are to move to Bangalore. "IBM customers (although they do not yet know) can now expect to be talking to Indian employees," he said.

In a memo announcing the "Assignment Based Organisation", IBM said that approximately "500 UK roles (300 full-time employees and 200 subcontractors) would be transitioned to Bangalore between Sept and Dec 2004". We put these points to IBM, which responded with a statement that implies that affected UK perms will be offered alternative employment.

"IBM is constantly rebalancing its workforce to ensure that we have the right skills in the right place to meet evolving customer needs. No IBM employee positions are involved in this re-organisation, although this may cause limited resource actions for some contractor staff," the statement said.

IBM declined to elaborate, beyond saying the reorganisation was internal. ®

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