Aussie firm to outsource jobs to India

A major investment company owned by Australia's leading bank Westpac is set to outsource over 70 jobs to India to improve customer service.

While denying the outsourcing of more than 70 South Australian jobs to India was a cost-cutting exercise, the BT Financial Group, investment arm of Westpac, argued the redundancies were aimed at improving customer service.

Workers at the BT office in Adelaide's south were told on Thursday that 77 administration jobs would go offshore, a local radio said on Friday.

BT spokeswoman Karen Barrett said the company wanted to redeploy some workers within the company, and also to its parent company, Westpac.

"We're looking at this as a redeployment program, it is not a retrenchment exercise," she said adding, "We've established a very strong redeployment programme so that we can retain the knowledge and the talents of these people and put them in positions within BT and within Westpac."

But she admitted some workers will miss out.

She denied the redundancies were part of a cost cutting exercise. "This is not about cost, it's about improving customer service."

However, Finance Sector Union spokesman Paul Schroder said it was unconvincing and that "this was simply spin on the part of the bank".

"They are doing this because it is cheaper to do it in India," he said.

The union said BT had offered some workers $2,000 to help train their Indian replacements.

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