APPENDIX 2
Memorandum by Barclays plc
THE RECENT OFFSHORING FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT
WITH UNIFI
BACKGROUND TO
THE AGREEMENT
Barclays is a leading financial services company
which makes a significant contribution to the UK economy through
the services we provide, the investments we make in other businesses
and through the investments made in us. Our objective is to ensure
that we operate in the most effective way possible to provide
good service to our customers, value for our shareholders, job
satisfaction and a good working environment for our people. In
doing this we are constantly measured against the other leading
financial services players in the global economy.
In order to compete effectively Barclays needs
to keep all its operations under review. We have and will continue
to use the full range of options to improve our business efficiency.
These include re-designing our structures and processes, outsourcing
within the UK and joint ventures. We consider offshoring one of
these options. Offshoring projects themselves are often complex
and usually involve some of these other elements as well the relocation
of activity. In some instances it has even involved the setting
up of new UK centres.
We welcome the UK Government's recognition that
UK businesses need to be free to locate across the global economy
in order to improve competitiveness.
ARRIVING AT
THE FRAMEWORK
AGREEMENT
Barclays recognises and values excellent employee
relations and our current arrangements are testimony to this.
We have a long-standing partnership with the financial services
union, Unifi, where we engage in constructive dialogue on a range
of issues that affect our employees and their members. Underpinning
this relationship is a set of "Partnership Principles",
one of which relates to employability.
We recognise that the most effective way for
people to deal with change is through improving and adding to
their skills and experience.
We will work together to ensure that wherever
possible compulsory redundancies will be avoided.
Before the new Globalisation Framework was announced,
Barclays already had some very good policies to support people
affected by change, eg we provide three months paid leave as standard
in redundancy situations enabling most people to secure other
employment whilst maintaining their income. We wanted to build
on the existing policies and develop an effective approach for
mitigating the impact of any offshoring. As a socially responsible
company we want to ensure that if we do relocate activity offshore
we create other opportunities through redeployment and re-skilling.
Drawing on our previous experience of working
on a partnership basis Barclays and Unifi put together a combined
team that worked over a number of months to review the existing
policies and look at what we could do to improve our offering
to our people.
The overall aim in making the change was to
maximise the options available to people and the redeployment
possibilities inside or outside the bank, recognising that people
have good generic skills that are transferable and often want
to take the opportunity when displaced to make a new start in
other employment.
Full details of the Framework are provided in
Annex 1 but within it are several core components:
— Providing as much lead time as possible
in order to plan for the changes and allow the measures to work.
Typically this involves consulting with Unifi at a collective
level six months ahead of the changes.
— Tailoring the supports to suit the
particular circumstances of a project and the people concerned.
No two projects are alike and so a complete one size fits all
approach would not have been appropriate.
— Providing professional career support
for all concerned so that people have all the tools to support
them through the change.
— Providing escalating levels of support
so that if people want to be re-deployed in the bank but do not
secure another role, other supports become available to them.
— Providing a redeployment team to
help identify and match people with alternative opportunities.
REACTIONS TO
DATE
Following the announcement of the agreement
there has been a positive reaction from a number of quarters.
Ed Sweeney, UNIFI's General Secretary, has commented that such
an agreement is the only constructive way forward and will set
a measure against which other companies looking to outsource from
the finance sector will have to be tested.
The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP, the Secretary
of State for Trade and Industry, has also welcomed the agreement
and described it as ground breaking, allowing the management of
the business to maximise its future strategic options and recognising
the responsibilities the union has in representing its members.
She has expressed the hope the agreement will be a blueprint for
other employers and unions.
January 2004
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