Overwhelming vote for action over IT offshoring plan

IT workers who maintain the records of millions of people for the Department for Work and Pensions have voted for industrial action over plans to offshore their work, the Public and Commercial Services union has announced.

The staff, employed by Hewlett Packard on a government contract, will refuse to co-operate with the process of exporting work from Newcastle, Lytham and Sheffield to Bangalore in India – a move which could lead to the loss of more than 200 posts.

The data that DWP collects includes very personal and valuable information about people’s benefits. The union believes this is the first time it has been proposed to send the live records of so many people overseas.

92.5% of those who took part in the ballot voted for industrial action short of a strike. The turnout was 47.6%.

From a PCS press release