Sending Australian Jobs To India – Or Not?

Last week, India’s Economic Times had good news for its readers. 500 Australia New Zealand (ANZ) Bank jobs were going to be shifted from Australia to Bangalore. ANZ currently employs more than 35,000 people in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Pacific, UK/Europe, Dubai, India and the USA and it already has a technology centre in Bangalore employing 3,000 people.

The Times quoted an ANZ spokesperson saying most of the jobs about to be scrapped were in Melbourne.

“In 2008, the size of the operation in Bangalore grew by around 500 people and it is reasonable to expect there will be some further growth in 2009,” said an ANZ spokeswoman in a statement.

The statement follows a report in the The Age several months ago that consultants had recommended to ANZ that it should cut 620 jobs between January and September 2009, with 870 jobs identified for “offshore migration.”

In the wake of fierce criticism, however, the bank has now issued a statement, reported by AAP, that will not be shifting 500 jobs to India and that it does not expect to cut jobs materially in 2009.

When asked whether the bank could categorically say that 500 jobs in Australia will not be shifted to India, the spokeswoman said: “Categorically, yes”.

ANZ is one of Australia’s ten biggest businesses with assets of AUD$471.02 billion. It is also New Zealand’s largest bank and has expanded its operations to more than 30 other countries.