London, March 2: Lloyds TSB Bank has introduced new technology which has led to a declining work load for a call centre in Mumbai where 180 staff have been switched to other duties.

Although this has been hailed as a major victory by Amicus, the white-collar union which has consistently opposed the off-shoring of jobs to India, the reality appears to be somewhat less dramatic.

A Lloyds TSB spokesman explained to The Telegraph today that the bank operated 10 call centres in the UK, plus one in Mumbai to take “overflow calls”.

If there was such demand from customers in Britain that the UK call centres could not cope, the overflow calls went through to be answered by staff in India.

However, the demand for call centres has fallen because of the introduction of a new technology known as “IVR” — Interactive Voice Recognition.

Although a customer can still speak to a staff member if required, the bank has found some routine jobs, such as finding out bank balances, can be done automatically.

“We thought the number of calls answered by staff would fall by eight per cent because of IVR,” said a spokesman, “but it has actually fallen by 26 per cent — much better than we expected. So we don’t need the overflow centre in Mumbai, and staff there have been switched to other back office tasks.”

Asked whether Lloyds TSB would continue to off-shore work to India, the spokesman said: “Oh God, yes. It’s just that we don’t need the overflow centre.”

In the very long run, if new technology reduces the number of calls that have to be answered by “humans”, it is logical to assume there will be less of a need for call centre staff in the UK — and in India.

But the adjustment made by Lloyds TSB has been interpreted as a big victory by Amicus.

Union representative Susan Worsley said in a statement: “This announcement fully vindicates the Amicus campaign. Our offshoring agreement with Lloyds TSB guarantees a new job for everyone whose role is offshored and allows Amicus to challenge Lloyds TSB when the offshoring of work is being considered.”

The union said that “the new technology means that customers can be self-serving for simple transactions and this has resulted in reduced call volumes.”

“Amicus welcomes the decision by Lloyds TSB to capture these benefits by continuing to invest in the future of its’ UK staff”.

The union also acknowledged that “all staff in India (180 jobs) will be redeployed. The Mumbai call centre was acting as an overflow to the UK call centres and the introduction of Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) means that all calls are now able to be handled in the UK”.

If the IVR technology proves to be even more successful than it has been in its early operation, it is possible, of course, that Lloyds TSB will no longer require all the staff currently employed in call centres in the UK.