THAMES Water is to cut 150 jobs from its Swindon call centre and is likely to transfer the work to India.

The company said it has yet to put the customer services contract out to tender.

But the union Unison is convinced that the call centre work will be transferred to India, where there is a pool of graduate workers who demand far less in wages than their counterparts in the UK.

The move would be the latest move in a trend to transfer UK call centres overseas, which potentially places thousands of Swindon jobs in jeopardy.

There are more than 2,000 people employed at 14 call centres in Swindon.

On Monday insurer Prudential announced plans to cut 850 jobs from its call centre in Reading after moving the operation to Bombay. Some 1,000 workers are employed at Thames Water's Kembrey Park call centre.

The company insists other jobs have not been put in danger by the cuts, which it says are being made to improve efficiency.

Spokesman Andrew Boyd said that the job cuts will be achieved by natural turnover and reducing agency staff.

They are likely to be in place by January 2004.

The cuts are proposed among staff currently dealing with customer correspond-ence and processing meter readings.

Mr Boyd said: "It's alarmist to question the future of the customer centre over this.

"There are no further plans for out-sourcing after this."

Unison spokesman Ron Harley said: "The company has made it very clear that they can make substantial savings on the back of cutting workers in the UK.

"I understand the company is having briefings from a couple of companies in India in the next few days.

"The proposal to transfer these jobs out of the UK is very worrying indeed.

"This is a slap in the face for a number of our members who have worked tirelessly to improve services to customers over many years.

"We are currently seeking the views of members over these proposals and from initial discussions they are very angry indeed."