Hibernian moving to India - is it time we acted?

R

RMCF

Registered User
Messages
1,432
I listened with much disappointment at the news of 580 jobs being moved to India, wrecking the lives of many Irish people.

Considering we are a country in recession and with many job losses forecast for the coming years, I was wondering is it time we all stood together and tried to do something about it?

I have been a Hibernian insurance customer for approx 7 years. However, I would be more than happy to switch it to another company even if it cost me another small amount each year. We need to try to keep as much wealth and jobs in this country, and we can make a stand if we really want to.

I have several experiences of dealing with India call centres in the past, and I will not do it again with Hibernian. Apparently they speak good English - well not the ones I have spoken to in the past.

So does anyone think that we can make a difference, or will people just accept the Hibernian move, especially if it gives them lower premiums?

Discuss.
 
Considering we are a country in recession and with many job losses forecast for the coming years, I was wondering is it time we all stood together and tried to do something about it?
Click to expand...
Like trim down our bloated public sector?, or confront the unions? We'll probably have to make do with tax hikes and reduced services in Budget 2009.

Realistically, we are 10 years too late to 'do anything about it'.
 
Some of the things we could do

Employ Irish people to do jobs in our houses.

Buy Irish goods where possible.

Buy from companies that are in this country.
 

What kind of difference are you hoping to make exactly? To reduce their profits so they end up making even more workers redundant? Protectionism makes us poorer.
 
RMCF said:
I listened with much disappointment at the news of 580 jobs being moved to India, wrecking the lives of many Irish people.
Click to expand...

Lets keep it real here a small bit.
I certainly don't think it will be wrecking the lives of irish people.

Most of those in the redundancies are highly skilled with many years experience in IT,business etc.

Also - many of those going will be contractors.
That is the nature and risk of contracting.
i.e. while it pays more it is more risky.

I'm a contarctor myself - contractors at any time in teh past could have went for a permanent role but decided to take the gamble.

i also was made redundant from hibernian 3 years ago and had teh pick of jobs when i left with a fine redundancy pavkage in my pocket.

Teh bigger issue here is the fact that 600 jobs are going from an irish financial company.
The question is what does this indicate in teh big picture for teh economy?
It is merely incidenatl that it happens to be hibernian doing the redundancies.

hibernian is merely a symptom of teh problem.
 
I appreciate some of your points here, but I still believe that we have to try to keep jobs in this country wherever possible.

OK so all of the 580 people just told that they will be laid off may not be shattered by the news, but many will. And if this move proves a success for Hibernian then its only a matter of time before many hundreds more are moved out to cheap countries.

I know that many will simply buy the cheapest service/labour possible, whether this is Irish or abroad. But I would not mind paying a little extra to have the service provided by an Irish company with Irish staff based in Ireland. I think if more had this attitude then the country would be in a much better state.
 

Fair enough - i guess that if everyone did stand up and take their business from hibernian in protest then this may stop hibernian - and in future,other irish companies - from outsourcing their jobs.

It's next to impossibel to organise in relaity though.

With hibernian, theyt are part of teh aviva brand which has a policy of restructuring worldwide and hibernian got caught in teh crossfire.
 
From what I heard there will be no redundancies; they will simply not hire people to replace those who leave over the next three years. If, nearing the end of that time, they are not on target they will offer voluntary redundancies.

On the more general point will Irish people pay more for their insurance if they are buying it from an Irish company? Personally I don't think many would.
As has been pointed out the problem is that we as a country are too expensive. It’s not just that we are low cost but we are also not productive enough (for our price). The only way we can resolve this is by cutting costs and/or increasing productivity in the private sector and more particularly in the public sector. The days of the free ride our over, in the coming years we will have to generate wealth without relying on foreign direct investment or harvesting taxes from other countries.
We are a small country with a young, reasonably well-educated population that is quite dynamic and open to change. There is no good reason why we cannot achieve our potential but it will require a change in attitude so that we all accept that we are responsible for our own actions and no one owes us a living. When and if this happens then we have a bright future. If it doesn’t happen and the mindless protectionism that I heard from the union spokesperson in Hibernian prevails then we are screwed.
 
Purple said:
From what I heard there will be no redundancies; they will simply not hire people to replace those who leave over the next three years. If, nearing the end of that time, they are not on target they will offer voluntary redundancies.
Click to expand...


and what if 580 people do not leave overteh next 3 years?
i.e. one quarter of teh work force?

That's just a bitof media spin to soften teh blow atthe beginning.

Basically - they are gonna get rid of 580 people over teh next 3 years through whatevr means necessary.
They will then look for voluntary redundancies - and failing that it will be forced redundancies.
 
qwertyuiop said:
Basically - they are gonna get rid of 580 people over teh next 3 years through whatevr means necessary.
They will then look for voluntary redundancies - and failing that it will be forced redundancies.
Click to expand...
That's capitalism for you. Jobs can't be protected or guaranteed for life. Unless you work in a certain sector of the economy. All we can do is help people retrain and try to grow new industry which needs skilled people like those who work for hibernian.
 
Well I for one will ditch Hibernian imediately, the service is bad at the moment but trust me it will get far worse over the coming months or year. And of course the people working for Hibernian will shoot themsleves in the foot as usual as the service will get so bad it can only go one way when it is outsourced ie UP.

I have tried for a month to get a refund and a new policy all to no avail. I gave them my new address in block capitals and they still used the old address that I had left. Woeful

noa-
 
RMCF said:
But I would not mind paying a little extra to have the service provided by an Irish company with Irish staff based in Ireland. I think if more had this attitude then the country would be in a much better state.
Click to expand...

Does this mean you would never use Tesco, Aldi or Lidl and instead use Superquinn or Dunnes even if they are more expensive as an example?

Maybe you already do but a lot of people wouldn't think twice of taking their custom away from an Irish business if they can save money.

The Hibernian case is different alright but you can see the point I making
 

Dude... it is "the"
 
They are not getting rid of customer facing staff.
 
Purple said:
It’s not just that we are low cost but we are also not productive enough (for our price). The only way we can resolve this is by cutting costs and/or increasing productivity in the private sector and more particularly in the public sector.
Click to expand...
I'd be very interested in an explanation as to how cutting costs in the public sector is more likely to result in lower insurance costs than cutting costs in the private sector?
 
Atavistic insular populist nationalist sentiments would never influence my purchasing decisions to be honest.
 
Complainer said:
I'd be very interested in an explanation as to how cutting costs in the public sector is more likely to result in lower insurance costs than cutting costs in the private sector?
Click to expand...

Not sure about the cost side of things but improved public sector productivity would have a knock-on effect for the entire economy (e.g. people spending less time travelling to and from work).
 
Complainer said:
I'd be very interested in an explanation as to how cutting costs in the public sector is more likely to result in lower insurance costs than cutting costs in the private sector?
Click to expand...

It was a general point about out cost base as a country and why companies outsource. Do remember that jobs are being lost to the UK, Holland, the USA and other Western countries as well as "new" low cost economies.
 
S.L.F said:
Some of the things we could do

Employ Irish people to do jobs in our houses.

Buy Irish goods where possible.

Buy from companies that are in this country.
Click to expand...

We did this in the 80's, guaranteed Irish and that sort of thing. I won't be doing it again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register