CUSTOMERS visiting Lloyds TSB in Salisbury on Monday were being invited to sign a petition calling on the bank to keep all its jobs in the UK.

John Smith and Peter Ozanne, both retired bank employees, said that they were in Salisbury as part of a national campaign by Lloyds TSB Group Union to stop bank jobs being exported to India.

"People have been approaching us to sign the petition," said Mr Smith, who was standing outside the Blue Boar Row branch.

"Many feel very strongly about it and they're not all Lloyds TSB customers."

A spokesman for the LTU, which represents 45,000 Lloyds TSB group staff, said: "LTU objects fundamentally to the export of UK-based jobs to India or anywhere else where the main motive is the use of cheap labour to the detriment of British jobs.

"We believe customers would prefer that all aspects of their accounts be handled in the UK and we want to persuade the bank to drop any plans to move work abroad."

LTU assistant general secretary Steve Tatlow added: "We're giving customers a say in where their business is handled.

"We believe most customers will agree that the bank has a social responsibility to keep jobs in the UK.

"Many thousands of customers have already signed our petition, in some areas queuing to do so."

A spokeswoman for Lloyds TSB said: "In September, we announced our intention to have 1,500 roles in India by the end of 2004 and we have been carrying out a small-scale pilot in Bangalore since April 2003.

"When we made this announcement, we were very clear to outline the areas of the group that are currently looking at the opportunities in India.

"They are group operations, Scottish Widows, general insurance, telephony and Cheltenham and Gloucester.

"It is too early to say where these roles might come from but we are committed to keeping staff and customers fully informed throughout the process."