The Public and Commercial Services Union has criticised Hewlett-Packard’s plan to send IT roles under a contract with the Department of Work and Pensions to India.

HP has confirmed that it is consulting with the government over the possibility of transferring roles under the DWP contract, currently delivered from various sites in the UK, to its operations in India "effective in 2012".

The PCS union said in a statement that it questioned whether "selling jobs to an offshore location can actually save the taxpayer money and we will be highlighting the fact that it makes no economic sense if the savings made on the DWP account are overshadowed by the overall costs on items such as benefits and wider costs to the community."

It remarked that should the plans go ahead, they could be the "tip of the iceberg" of IT offshoring in the public sector.
    
Last week, the Unite union criticised Birmingham City Council, following the news that around 100 IT jobs from its joint venture with service provide Capita are expected to be offshored this year.

There have been a few signs that the UK public sector’s traditional objection to offshore outsourcing may be thawing under intense pressure to cut costs. However, unions have been vociferous in their opposition to this.