back to article Staff at Steria gov shared services centre offered voluntary redundo

Workers at the Sopra Steria-run UK government shared services centre received an early Christmas present this week: the opportunity to apply for voluntary redundancy. The Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL) entity was set up as a joint venture four years with the Cabinet Office to consolidate back office services across …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Saved 90m but cost 94m.

    Did they do the math on an iPhone calculator?

    1. macjules

      "Saved 90m but cost 94m."

      That is remarkably cheap for government. OPM and all that.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "That is remarkably cheap for government. OPM and all that."

        I wonder how many of the foot soldiers who lost their jobs during the outsourcing are still looking for work and claiming benefits? Or walked into jobs that other people on benefits might have got but didn't. Outsourcing Govt. jobs and reducing headcount has costs which are rarely, if ever, considered. Especially when it outsourced to private companies who eventually off-shore some or many of the jobs.

    2. Oh Homer
      Windows

      Why is it always at Christmas?

      No but seriously, it's like mass redundancy has become a sort of Christmas tradition.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Phil Kingston

      Re: Let me finish that paragraph.

      "Those who have transferred over from the public sector, won't get offered redundancy."

      Too much HR/legal/union stress to get rid of them if they've come over on the kind of contracts i've seen public guys transferred/outsourced to their existing roles under a private entity. Sadly, that leaves the most useless as the ones left to run the place.

      Steria must really want out.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Let me finish that paragraph.

        Steria must really want out.

        I doubt it. They will have made non-commital assurances about providing the services to government with on-shore and TUPE'd labour, but as soon as possible they'll move to eliminate anybody on expensive legacy terms, and offshore as much as possible to somewhere cheap and crap, along with a crap process.

        My wife works for the public sector, and has had to deal with Steria - her unsatisfactory experience was that the delivery (if you can call it that) was via South African, although Steria have the usual crap Indian "capability".

        So when the British government is happily eliminating British jobs in favour of SA and India workers and French corporations, we can see that their pathetic hand wringing about UK productivity and employment means nothing. And because the civil service is involved, it costs more than it saves, and nobody is held to account.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Let me finish that paragraph.

          "So when the British government is happily eliminating British jobs in favour of SA and India workers and French corporations, we can see that their pathetic hand wringing about UK productivity and employment means nothing."

          Wow Sir. One upvote is inadequate. I've noticed the bleating about productivity, and how others are more productive than us feckless blightyites. Idea : when there's public sector technical work to be done, let's do it here. Lets train some people to do it here, if they are not around. Techie skills go up, productivity should follow. I think the current, totally fucking clueless lot's plan is to re-train people to pick cabbages in Lincolnshire, after their masochistic policies on Europe chase away the folks who currently do it.

      2. jmch Silver badge

        Re: Let me finish that paragraph.

        "Sadly, that leaves the most useless as the ones left to run the place."

        That is typical in these early retirement schemes. The ones who are any good know they can get a job elsewhere so take the money and leave. Those who are hanging on to the job with their fingernails are usually the ones who know they won't get a better (or as good as) job

        1. HmmmYes

          Re: Let me finish that paragraph.

          Shhhh!

          HR people might read this!

          'Oh my God! Amanda (all HR are women and have upwardly mobile names). I think I have discovered a flaw in our head reduction plan ...'

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Let me finish that paragraph.

          Before anyone jumps ship or accepts TUPE they should really look at the value of their lost pension benefits. The impact of leaving a scheme is often higher than the short term gains, so who is being stupid? The benefit of leaving is knowing that you are no longer working in a dystopian organisation and that is worth a lot more.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shit Services

    Are they still a thing?

    1. BebopWeBop

      Re: Shit Services

      Bog standard offerings I believe

  4. Graham 25

    Well as long as governments insist on 90 days notice, the workings of the Gregorian calendar means that to complete the process during a government tax year, redundancies will always be made at Christmas.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Just like DXC, IBM and others?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sopra-Steria - the quality service

    I used to work for Sopra, was part of the workforce when the "merger" with Steria took place. It was noticeable how quickly the quality of internal services headed south when they were all migrated to Steria's systems. Dealing with people like HR and IT support became a regular battle with Steria India and their call centres.

    The general comments heard from Sopra staff were along the lines of "if this is what it's like for us, how bad can it be for our customers?" I guess we're starting to find out.

    AC because - well obviously....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sopra-Steria - the quality service

      Ah, CSD. Yes, I too find myself wondering what it must be like to be a client when the servicing organisation can't even keep the basics like Outlook working for its own staff.

  6. handleoclast
    Coat

    Reg writers are going downhill

    Shirley you could have worked in "a night at the Sopra" or some such.

    What is the world coming to?

  7. Robert D Bank

    SopraSterius breaks out in Whitehall...shit

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