HUNDREDS of workers at a business services firm have been told their jobs will move to India.

HUNDREDS of workers at a business services firm have been told their jobs will move to India.

More than 300 processing jobs are to go at Capita, as reported in late editions of last night's Evening Times, a move which will trigger multi-million pound savings.

The outsourcing giant has said the administrative posts are to be axed at its St Vincent Street base and admitted that staff who currently perform "back office" tasks also face the risk of redundancy.

The planned switch to India has triggered an angry backlash from union leaders.

Graham Goddard, deputy general secretary of Unite, said hundreds of City Centre workers have been warned they may not have a job by the end of the year.

Capita has pledged to try to offer alternative posts to the affected staff, who each earn up to £15,000 a year, but Mr Goddard said: "Unite is angry that Capita will not give staff a commitment that there will be no compulsory job losses at the site in Glasgow."

He added: "The offshoring of this work to India will be a bitter blow for the workforce, who now face a very unfair and arbitrary redundancy selection criteria.

"Unite will now be having discussions with our members in order to assess our next steps."

Capita specialises in outsourcing jobs. The latest batch will see the transfer of processing functions from Glasgow to Mumbai and if that results in the eventual loss of more than 300 jobs then Capita will generate savings of almost £5million.

But union leaders fear the cost cuts could eventually involve 450 staff - a saving of £7.2m for the company.

Capita yesterday launched a 90-day consultation period with its Glasgow workforce and said the switch to India was part of a "programme of changes" agreed with insurance company Pearl after it decided to outsource work to Capita. Work from another Capita site in England is also being transferred to Mumbai.

The company had warned in January that 375 jobs at Wythall, in the West Midlands, were to be relocated to either Glasgow or India, or another unspecified Capita site.

Capita now says an undisclosed number of jobs are to be transferred to Glasgow, where a dedicated call centre for Pearl customers is to be set up along with a centre of excellence for "retained" administrative functions.

Referring to the Glasgow operation, a Capita statement read: "As a result of this, 302 administrative roles will be relocated to Mumbai and today the Capita employees currently filling those roles have been given formal notice that their jobs are at risk of redundancy."

Capita insists the union and its workforce have been kept fully informed and added: "We intend to redeploy as many employees as possible within the Capita Group and are confident of our ability to do so."