HSBC chief executive Geoghegan in Malta, as bankers union flag ‘regular offshoring’

MUBE president William Portelli said the bank has been relocating back-office operations at the HSBC Operations Centre to lower-wage countries such as Poland and India.

“Offshoring is an accepted process the world over, but in our case it leads to the restructuring of departments and creates much uncertainty amongst workers. It is becoming regular and we don’t know when it’s going to end,” Portelli said.

Offshoring describes the relocation by a company of a business process from one country to another – such as manufacturing, or supporting processes like accounting – to reduce costs.

In a circular to members, MUBE explained that HSBC had been advised that the union “cannot agree with the practice of off-shoring without the necessary safeguards, namely: that posts for displaced staff are pre-identified prior to any off-shoring exercise, and that the Bank’s previous promise that any off-shoring of jobs at HSBC would be accompanied by the on-shoring of other jobs to the bank is kept.”

MUBE said it was extremely disappointed by the fact that the conditions are not being fulfilled, causing uncertainty and considerable stress to HSBC’s working environment.

“It is useless continuing with such practice while at the same time everyone is expected to make the necessary effort to make HSBC the best place to work,” MUBE president William Portelli wrote in the circular distributed to members.

“It is not what was agreed to between HSBC and MUBE and for this reason, and until MUBE is given the necessary assurances, members are being informed that a trade dispute is to be registered with HSBC.”

Between 2005 and 2008, HSBC doubled the number of staff employed at its offshore back office centres in Asia, cutting more jobs at its operations in Europe and the US. The expansion was part of a four-year $1bn cost cutting programme implemented at the bank in 2003. The bank said it would save about $20,000 for every job it moves offshore.

In 2006, HSBC opened a call centre in Malta and the success of the operation was reported to have led to another cal centre in Vietnam, to access the French skills of the population and cut costs in the bank’s French operations.