Fresh calls to stem job exodus

MEPs in the European Parliament will on Tuesday launch a campaign to highlight the plight of thousands of EU jobs lost to the growing trend of offshoring.

Companies are increasingly outsourcing many jobs, mainly in high-tech services such as software development and call centres, to countries with lower labour costs like India.

Relocating work from Europe to Indian cities such as Delhi, Bombay, and Bangalore can cut costs for global firms by up to 40 percent.

But major companies which relocate taking thousands of jobs with them can have devastating effects on local communities.

Socialist MEPs have drawn up a declaration - expected to receive wide cross-party support - calling on the commission to produce an impact analysis on the employment effects of outsourcing.

Claude Moraes, a UK Labour MEP, who drew up the declaration, said "Every day EU companies, particularly in the UK, France, Spain and Scandinavia outsource key jobs in areas such as call centres, airlines, legal processing and finance to developing countries like India."

While Moraes stressed that MEPs were not calling for the end to offshoring, he said that the EU must do more at regional level to respond to the impact of mass job losses.

"In the European Parliament, we understand this is not an issue of protectionism but one of waking up member states to the need for strategies to cope with serious job losses, and the need to move further towards the Lisbon agenda, which calls on the EU to move towards more and higher quality jobs."

The initiative is supported by the trade union Uni Europe and UK trade union Amicus.

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