M&S shareholders express concern over IT staff outsourcing

M&S has outsourced IT staff

Marks & Spencer shareholders have expressed concern about the “integrity and moral justification” of IT staff transferred to work for outsourcing supplier Cognizant.

M&S is a long-term customer of the Indian firm, but a question posed to the retailer at its annual general meeting in July – and since published at its web site – suggests that the transfer of 60 IT staff under the deal has not been universally welcomed.

“Are you satisfied that M&S acted with integrity and moral justification when 60 IT staff at Stockley Park were transferred to Cognizant, to work with imported labour from India? If so, why did ACAS say: “We could not believe that M&S would so blatantly violate the transfer laws’?” asked the un-named shareholder.

The official M&S response said: “This is a very serious issue. M&S is very satisfied that it completed this transfer in a rigorous and appropriate way and employees were consulted fully. It must be stressed that M&S is not importing labour at all but are working to ensure that we are transferring these skills in the right way to a new supplier. We are satisfied that the TUPE [Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)] transfer regulations have been applied appropriately. M&S has a very good reputation in relation to these types of TUPE transfer and has acted with real propriety.”

M &S IT and logistics director Darrell Stein told Computing in an interview in October 2008 that he had been pursuing a new IT strategy over the past three years that included a reduction in the number of contractors used, as well as consolidating vendors and making tactical use of outsourcing. As a result, the firm’s base of 200 suppliers was reduced to about 40 companies, and 420 freelance IT staff had been reduced to fewer than 100 by the end of last year.

“We put a much stricter process in place to better manage our contractor work, ensuring there was a strong business case for every contract so we got the best value,” said Stein at the time.