Union anger over staff shadowing

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Workers from India are due to shadow staff at the British Council in the UK under plans to outsource jobs from the organisation, union leaders say.

The Public and Commercial Services union said workers were angered at the the move by the body which promotes British culture and language abroad.

Its shadowing scheme is part of the council's plans to cut jobs and outsource more work to India.

The public body said it was not "immune to external financial pressures".

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union is continuing to campaign against the job losses.

"It will be extremely disconcerting for our members to have Indian workers shadowing them," said a spokesman.

"Staff are angry and upset at the way the British Council has dealt with this."

Finance hubs

Last month, the British Council, which is partly funded by the taxpayer, outlined its plans to cut costs.

It said it had been "living with reductions in its government grant", while its purchasing power overseas had suffered owing to the drop in the value of sterling.

Its chief executive, Martin Davidson, said: "To ensure that we are spending as much as possible on our programmes which build influence and opportunities for Britain internationally, we will be investing more overseas to increase our impact and part of this investment will be paid for by reducing our running costs."

Under the plans, the council will lose between 400 and 500 posts in the UK over the next two years - about a third of its UK workforce.

The organisation currently employs 6,100 staff in more than 100 countries and several hundred overseas posts will also be cut.

The council's finance functions, currently located in five centres around the world, will be consolidated into one in India and one in the UK.

About 40 finance posts will be lost in the UK, as well as an expected net reduction of around 40 overseas finance jobs, although 60 new jobs will be created in the India office.

There are also plans to consolidate the council's IT work to fewer sites - with the number of posts in the UK likely to fall from 185 to 100.

The British Council says it is consulting staff and the unions on its plans.