Dump outsourcing to India, FSU tells St George's shareholders

Melbourne, December 20 (UNI) One of the most prominent Australian anti-outsourcing body, the Finance Sector Union (FSU), has urged the St George Bank shareholders to reject outsourcing to India.

The Australian bank is having its annual general meeting at Convention and Exhibition Centre in Sydney today.

''St George cannot continue to satisfy shareholders with the argument that offshoring is necessary to give the bank a competitive advantage when they base their reputation around caring for people,'' FSU national secretary Paul Schroder said in a statement.

''Their actions continue to fly in the face of concerns from workers, customers and shareholders,'' he further said.

Security of the sensitive account information and customer contact details have been given as two reasons for this unusual urging to the shareholders. Moving of St George Bank jobs would undermine the bank's reputation, he urged.

According to the Australian media reports, the bank earlier this year moved over 70 jobs from Sydney and Adelaide to Bangalore in India.

FSU is also involved in a number of campaigns to prevent export of Australian jobs to low-wage countries like India as most of the leading Australian banks -- National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ Bank, etc, have outsourced to India.

UNI XC PV HT1457