PRUDENTIAL plc has announced plans to send 80 UK jobs from their Reading branch offshore to India and Scotland, according to Unite Union.

Workers in the Individual Annuities division were informed at a meeting on Friday morning that their jobs could be moved to Mumbai as early as October 2016.

Unite has entered a 45 day consultation period with Prudential which the union says could lead to industrial action.

The Union has claimed that Prudential, whose 2015 revenue was more than £41 billion and who provide life insurance and financial services, are also moving a small number of jobs to Craigforth, Scotland, to give telephone customers the impression that their operations are still UK based.

Dominic Hook, Unite National Officer for Finance, said: “Prudential knows full well that offshoring is a toxic issue.

“That’s why transferring a handful of public-facing jobs to Scotland will be used as a smoke screen to hide the fact that the majority of this highly technical and skilled work will go offshore.

“Behind the buzzwords used to justify the decision is the fact that Prudential want to pay someone in Mumbai far less to do the same work. Offshoring is cynical, exploitative and ultimately it will be the firm’s customers who will pay the price.

“Unite will stand with our members in Reading and as we prepare to enter consultation we warn Prudential that nothing is off the table when it comes to defending our members.

Responding to the reports, a spokesperson from Prudential claimed that a fall in demand for annuity products had led the company to the decision.

The spokesperson said: “As a result of this reduced customer demand and the realignment of our operating model to service this business, we are proposing to make a number of changes within the teams that support annuity administration.

“This has regrettably resulted in around 80 permanent roles being put at risk of redundancy.

“As a period of consultation has begun with those impacted, it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this point in time.”