A UNION is mounting a legal challenge to prevent a company from moving jobs to India.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) hopes to use the Data Protection Act to prevent Siemens Business Services from exporting 250 administrative posts - including 50 from Durham City.

It has raised concerns that customer information would have less protection if personal data was stored outside the UK.

The move comes amid mounting fears that criminal gangs are targeting poorly paid workers in India to buy personal information about customers.

Data protection issues are increasingly coming to the fore as more companies look to move office work to lower cost base countries such as India and China.

A Lloyds TSB Bank customer is also considering legal action alleging that plans to move 960 call centre jobs to India breach the act.

It has been suggested that the bank might have to obtain the written consent of every customer whose accounts are processed in India.

Siemens Business Services wants to move administrative work it carries out for National Savings and Investment to India to reduce costs.

Leigh Mavin, union branch secretary at the Durham City complex, said: "Our fear is that the transfer of 250 jobs to India is just the first shot before the further offshoring of what is essentially Government work.

"We have asked Siemens Business Services, the Government and National Savings and Investments to suspend the plans until a decision is reached in the Lloyds TSB case, otherwise we fear that the Government could find itself in breach of the Data Protection legislation it has introduced.

"If our legal advice suggests we have a similar case, and that advice is strong, then we will seriously consider launching a challenge."

Siemens has been running National Savings since 1999 and recently agreed a five-year extension of its contract with the Government.

The company said no jobs would be lost in England and that any staff affected would be redeployed.

A Siemens spokesman said: "We can say categorically that customer records and transactions would continue to be stored in the UK, with procedures in place to ensure that they cannot be stored or taken off site.

"Additionally, they will be encrypted for transmission to and from Siemens India. Data security is paramount and it will be protected by the best systems available in the industry."