Shivangi Ambani-Gandhi
SYDNEY: Staff at the accounts office of Australia’s St George Bank in Kogarah, Sydney, have decided not to help train a team of IT workers from the Indian outsourcing company that is taking over their jobs.
“We have nothing against them, our problem is with the bank,” Cathy Samartzis, a worker at the bank, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Sixty workers at St George Bank, the country’s fifth largest, refused to train their Indian replacements who appeared in the office on October 18. The workers, who had been told they would lose their jobs early next year, were asked to help train the new staff through a buddy system. Samartzis said: “Some people have been here a long time. They have mortgages and families and kids to feed. It makes me sick.”
Last year the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned that one in five of Australia’s 10 million jobs could be exported. Many major Australian companies, including Qantas, Woolworths, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank, have already begun or are seriously considering outsourcing programmes.
