Amicus signs partnership agreement safeguarding interests of employees faced with offshoring
The Government has backed what is said to be a unique agreement between global IT giant Computer Sciences Corporation and trade union Amicus protecting jobs threatened by offshore outsourcing.
Under the deal, CSC has pledged to use cost savings made through offshoring to train and develop its UK workforce.
Peter Skyte, Amicus National Officer, said the agreement, covering 10,000 UK employees, was the first of its kind in the IT sector and the first with an American company. worldwide.
The union, which also represents more than 100,000 employees in the civil service, NHS, local government and higher education, said it would lobby other offshoring firms to foster similar approaches.
Mr Skyte said: "We hope other companies will follow this initiative as a way of both maintaining their competitiveness and continuing to invest in the jobs, skills and careers of their UK based employees."
The key features of the agreement include:
- Full and early consultation with Amicus on CSC's globalisation strategy and proposals before decisions are made
- The company with work with the union to avoid the need for compulsory redundancies
- Where necessary staff will be redeployed to jobs of at least similar career value and terms and conditions of employment
- A share of continuing financial savings will be invested in skill development of the UK workforce
- Where work is moved to a third party supplier, CSC will encourage high standards of terms and conditions of employment.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson supported the agreement as a way of providing safeguards for the UK workforce in the era of globalisation.
Commending Amicus for working with CSC to ensure that workers were consulted about offshoring before it happened, Mr Johnson said: "Globalisation is here to stay - the crucial thing is to ensure that it works for the many and not the few."
Related Links
Download the Agreed Arrangements Relating to World Sourcing. (PDF: 71KB)
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