A CITY MP wants customers to use people pressure against companies who export call centre jobs.

His call comes after a Newport firm said it was transferring posts to India, as reported in later editions of yesterday's Argus.

Lloyds TSB is to transfer 107 jobs from its Tredegar Park centre, and from Bournemouth. It is not yet known how many of those jobs will be from Newport.

The financial firm is just the latest in a string of companies taking advantage of low labour costs to export work to the subcontinent.

And Newport West's Paul Flynn said: "What is needed is pressure from the unions and customers to ensure that we do not keep losing jobs in this way. The unions are campaigning but if consumers used their muscle that would make a real difference.

"I have been in contact with the company and although it is unfortunate when any jobs go yesterday's blow is not as severe as it could have been."

A spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB in Wales said: "No-one will be made redundant in Lloyds TSB General Insurance.

"By the end of this year we will have a pilot (scheme) in India with 150 roles. We will have created 43 new roles, and 107 roles will be redeployed from our centres in Newport and Bournemouth.

"We will manage those by natural staff turnover and by redeploying staff to other roles in General Insurance and new front-line roles by the beginning of 2005."

Steve Slocombe, of Newport's development company Newport Unlimited, said: "Obviously any job losses are a concern but UK workers in call centres just cannot compete with the labour costs in places like India.

"What we have to do in Newport is create highly skilled value added jobs that are not exportable."

But assistant general secretary of Lloyds TSB group union, Steve Tatlow, said: "It is unacceptable that Lloyds TSB should be exporting Welsh jobs abroad merely because it can replace its existing staff with lower paid staff in India.

"This announcement could be the first of many which lead to hundreds, if not thousands, more Welsh jobs following suit, with serious consequences for the local economy."

Last month Lloyds TSB announced up to 90 job losses from the Newport centre, as part of restructuring.

The company hopes to manage the reductions through non-replacement and redeployment of staff, and some voluntary redundancies.