CSC outsources UK roles

CSC employees being made redundant are expected to train workers in India and the Czech Republic who will be taking on their roles.

EHI revealed earlier this year that the company was due to make 750 of its UK staff redundant as an “adjustment” to its workforce.

As part of this adjustment, around 200 roles are being outsourced to India and the Czech Republic.

Trade union Unite announced today that CSC staff are furious they have been told to help train these workers.

Unite national officer Ian Tonks said it was unacceptable and that the company should do everything in its power to keep the redundancies to a minimum.

"Workers who are paying the ultimate price of their jobs, will be expected to help make themselves redundant by training others,” he said.

"The company which claims to have $2 billion in cash available in the bank is refusing to properly compensate the workers for this indignity.

"To make matters worse, CSC wants to confirm the redundancies for the majority of staff before asking them to ‘handover’ their responsibilities.”

CSC was due to deploy the Lorenzo electronic patient record system to trusts in the North, Midlands and East of England under the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

However, the development and deployment of the system has been severely delayed. After many months of negotiations, a new deal that removed CSC’s exclusivity, was signed between the company and the Department of Health last year.

Trusts that still want Lorenzo can access central funding for deployment and service costs. Eight trusts so far have signed up to take the system and £600m has been set aside by the government to pay for up to 22 deployments.

Earlier this year, CSC said the redundancies were not directly related to any specific clients or programmes.

The number of redundancies from those who work on NHS accounts is not known, but a CSC employee told EHI that at least 42 of the redundancies were employees working on Lorenzo deployments.

A spokesperson from CSC said that the company estimated 750 people in the UK would be impacted, but that they would be supported “professionally” and “compassionately.”

“As part of its ongoing transformation strategy, CSC continues to redesign its global operations with the objective of becoming a more nimble, accountable, efficient organisation to improve its service to clients.

“The redesign has resulted in the loss of some jobs in locations throughout CSC’s organisation, including the UK,” said the spokesperson.

“A small number of CSC’s UK employees are supporting the knowledge transfer for specific roles moving to other CSC locations, and they are being additionally compensated."

Tonks said that Unite is demanding that CSC negotiates a proper redundancy package for its employees.

“Unite has had enough of the constant rounds of redundancies and staff are going to resist. The union now expects CSC to do more for the highly skilled workers who have given years of loyalty," he said.