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Civil servants fight plans to send jobs to France

Hundreds of civil servants whose jobs were privatised are now to be sacked with their work transferred overseas.

Hundreds of civil servants whose jobs were privatised are now to be sacked with their work transferred overseas.

The government contracted French firm Steria to take over services handling the personal data of tens of thousands of civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency.

The work also includes handling commercially sensitive information on government contracts and tendering.

Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL) was established to take on the work.

It is 75 per cent owned by Steria. The government owns the other 25 per cent.

SSCL has announced plans to sack 500 workers in Blackpool, Cardiff, Leeds, Newcastle, Peterborough, Sheffield and York.

The heaviest blows fall in Sheffield where 239 DWP staff will be axed and their office closed.

Cardiff DWP office will also be shut with the loss of 105 staff and the Leeds regional Environment Agency office will be shut with 68 staff sacked.

The company has refused to rule out further cuts and office closures in future.

Steria has stated it hopes to send some of the work overseas.

SSCL is the second initiative under government plans for "shared services" - the privatisation of work such as human resources, payroll, procurement and information technology.

Department for Transport shared services were sold off to contractor Arvato last year.

The Ministry of Justice recently announced it plans to join one of these two contracts, despite a previous commitment to keeping its shared services centre - which includes the Home Office - in-house.

Public-sector union PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka (pictured) said: "Not only is this devastating for the individuals who face being thrown out of work, it will be a major blow for local economies losing hundreds more jobs.

"Despite the government's recent claim that it wants businesses to bring jobs back to the UK, ministers appear happy to send civil service work overseas in a cynical move to exploit the inferior pay and employment conditions that workers abroad face."

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