AROUND 30 call-centre workers are facing redundancy after bosses announced plans to transfer the service from Scotland to Romania.

Staff at engineering firm Honeywell, based in Newhouse, Lanarkshire, have been told the firm is consulting on a proposal to move its customer-care department.

The announcement came as the company revealed it was creating almost 100 new jobs at a different call centre department at the Lanarkshire site, but Honeywell said it could not guarantee that any staff losing their jobs would be redeployed.

The firm added that the move to Romania was to allow for "closer contact" with customers.

However, union officials hit back at Honeywell. Jim Moohan, senior organiser for GMB, said: "I'm confident this is a cost-cutting exercise and it's completely unacceptable. We should be protecting UK business, not allowing jobs to be off-shored for very low wages."

A spokesman for Honeywell said : "We have another business at that site – Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Control –and we are creating 99 new roles at its global call centre."

He added: "We cannot guarantee that the 29 workers will be given roles elsewhere. It depends on their competencies and skills."

The spokesman denied that the proposed move was a cost-cutting exercise.