Indo-Asian News Service
London, February 20

The European Union (EU) must stop British firms moving hundreds of thousands of jobs to countries such as India, a Member of European Parliament (MEP) from the Midlands says.

Labour's Michael Cashman (West Midlands) joined trade union Amicus to call for a Europe-wide plan to address the "off-shoring" of jobs from Britain and other EU states.

Amicus is organising a consumer boycott of companies that have moved jobs to India.

It is working with the National Union of Students on a campaign encouraging students to blacklist companies including HSBC, British Airways and Norwich Union.

Cashman said Thursday that he wanted the European Commission to take action to end the trend.

He said: "Every day EU companies, particularly in the UK, France, Spain and Scandinavia, outsource key jobs in areas such as call centres, airlines, legal processing and finance to developing countries like India.

"British jobs are going to India, French jobs are going to North Africa, Spanish jobs are going to South and Central America, German jobs are going to Eastern Europe and Africa and Scandinavian jobs are going to the Baltic states and India.

"While some of these jobs will benefit developing countries, I believe more needs to be done to respond to these dramatic job losses, which can leave communities in shock."