Glasgow City Council IT staff are being forced to train Indian workers to do their jobs before their roles are moved to Asia.
Around 90 highly skilled workers have been offered early retirement or redeployment after the “knowledge transfer” has been completed.
Teams of graduates working for the council’s IT subcontractor CGI are taking part in rolling trips to Glasgow as part of the programme to learn their new jobs.
A source said: “Many of the IT staff are furious about what is happening, they are highly skilled well paid professional programmers and technicians who take pride in the job.
“They are employed directly through the council but are then seconded to CGI to work on an outsourced IT contract which keeps various computer systems up and running.
“The contract has recently been renewed and CGI have now said they don’t need the seconded council staff, but before they go they have been asked to train up Indian workers to do their jobs.
“The staff have then been offered early retirement or redeployment at a similar grade within the council. Around 70 of the workers have felt they had no option but to take early retirement and 20 are now waiting to hear what other job they will be offered.
“It is a disgrace, once these jobs are gone they will never come back to Scotland, and generations of graduates will not have access to the roles because they are being done at a fraction of the price abroad.”
Online job adverts suggest IT programmers and analysts in India will be paid between £5,000 and £12,000 a year.
The council IT workers taking early retirement and being redeployed are being paid between £40,000 and £60,000 by comparison.
Glasgow agreed an IT contract with Canadian headquartered CGI in 2017 to “transform digital services across the city”.
As a result of the deal around 200 existing council IT workers were given the option of signing up with CGI or remaining council employees and working for the company on secondment.
The contract has recently been renewed and some functions will now be passed onto a new contractor Commsworld, while others will stay with CGI.
It was after this that CGI announced it was cancelling the secondment programme and began the “knowledge transfer” to employees from its Indian office.
Dozens of companies have chosen to outsource jobs from Scotland to Asia and Eastern Europe in recent years.
Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken has been forced to implement cuts to services while mortgaging key buildings to balance the local authority’s books.
A council spokesman said: “The council has adopted a new multi-source model for delivery of digital and IT services and has begun, on a phased basis, procuring several new contracts – rather than working with a single provider.
“The secondment arrangement for GCC staff originally agreed with CGI will expire at the end of the financial year. In addition to continued engagement with trade unions, individual discussions have taken place with all seconded staff, with many choosing to leave voluntarily or taking up the opportunity of redeployment to other roles within the Council.
“CGI is a global company and we have been made aware that it intends to fulfil some roles on that basis, in future. However, no member of council seconded staff is being made redundant or redeployed to facilitate that.”
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