Glasgow City Council axed IT staff forced to train Indian workers for jobs transfer

dailyrecord.co.uk:

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