The offshore outsourcing juggernaut keeps rolling on inexorably.
Even as protests rise over the shifting of hundreds of call centre jobs from the United Kingdom and the United States to low-cost Asian nations like India, China and the Philippines, more and more firms and professionals are realising the benefits of outsourcing.
The latest to join the BPO wave are British and Welsh lawyers, who plan to move legal document production overseas, particularly to India, says BBC News.
The movement of paperwork to India could threaten the jobs of some of the estimated 20,000 legal secretaries in the UK, says BBC News.
Advances in technology mean that solicitors can drastically reduce the number of legal secretaries they employ, and shift their jobs to India for less than half the cost.
"The legal secretaries produce legal documents dictated by solicitors, prepare legal files, and liaise with clients. A number of law firms are cutting jobs and moving legal document production to India, where transcription centres there can offer graduates to do the work," says BBC News.
Meanwhile, UK's Law Society - which regulates solicitors - said that any outsourcing of work had to ensure security and confidentiality, and that liability remains with the UK firm, reported BBC News.
"Some solicitors believe clients might be unhappy about their legal work not being done directly by the firm they employ. But those who are promoting the idea say the cost savings will prove increasingly attractive," BBC News adds.
Meanwhile, a UK trade union -- Amicus -- has called for a thorough inquiry by the European Union into the move of skilled jobs to India.
"Amicus said the EU look at the economic impact of the trend should be more detailed than the study announced last week by British trade secretary Patricia Hewitt," says BBC News.
There has been concern over the move of thousands of call centre jobs from the UK to the subcontinent to reduce costs.
Last fortnight, insurance giant Norwich Union announced it was moving 2,500 jobs abroad.
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