KUALA LUMPUR: Shell is closing its Glasgow finance operations and will shift 380 jobs overseas, including to Malaysia. The jobs, according to a report in The Guardian, will be moved over a 15-month period to locations such as Shell’s offices in Chennai in India and Kuala Lumpur.
Feeling the bite of persistently low oil prices, Shell wants to hire workers in India and Malaysia as labour here is cheaper.
The Anglo-Dutch company told the 380 staff at its finance operations in Glasgow Wednesday that the office would be closed and they were facing “involuntary severance”, The Guardian reported.
The overall effect on Shell’s headcount will be negligible, although the firm has announced 12,500 job cuts since last year.
The Guardian quoted a Shell spokesperson as saying: “For Shell to remain competitive, difficult choices continue to have to be made to improve efficiency and value for money across all of our businesses and functions. Employees currently based in the Glasgow office will likely face involuntary severance.
“This decision is driven by increasing pressures on our business to reduce cost and generate cash, and reflects the fact that the capability of our other centres has evolved to be able to handle the activities that are currently performed in Glasgow, but at a significantly lower cost.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat energy spokesperson Liam McArthur was quoted as saying that it was important for the Scottish and UK governments to “look again at the tax regime and take urgent action to stop decommissioning contracts floating away from Scotland to our international competitors”.
