Axed staff 'train replacements'

The company is axing 188 jobs in order to save money

Call centre staff in West Sussex, whose jobs are being out-sourced overseas, are training the foreign workers who are replacing them, a union claims.

In May, 188 of the 342 American Express (Amex) workers in the Burgess Hill office were told their jobs were being moved overseas to India and Phoenix.

Now the union Amicus has said workers are being flown to Sussex to be trained by the people they are replacing.

An Amex spokesman said workers were in Sussex as part of a handover process.

It is pretty miserable for all of staff in Sussex the way things are and there is also always the fear that their job will be the next to go Barry Jones, Amicus

Speaking to BBC News Online the spokesman did not deny the allegations but said: "As a global company these people work with these individuals on a daily basis.

"Like any handover there will be people from Phoenix and India that come to visit Burgess Hill and there are people from here who will be visiting them as well. It is a two way thing."

Barry Jones, a regional officer for Amicus in the South East, said the morale of workers in the office was low.

Mr Jones said: "We have heard the overseas workers are being put up in the Brighton area and are being bussed into the Amex offices in Brighton and Burgess Hill.

"They are being trained to do work that's currently being done in those offices and the expectation is the work will disappear to India along with the people being trained.

"It is pretty miserable for all of staff in Sussex as there is also always the fear that their job will be the next to go."