Xerox Europe is planning to outsource some of its operations jobs to lower cost economies such as India, Bulgaria and The Philippines, along with redundancies to be introduced over an 18-month period, Bulgarian media reported.

The decision follows an outsourcing deal with computer giant IBM.

The good news for Bulgaria was accepted with an uproar among the Irish, as over half of the 900 Xerox Europe employees in Ireland whose jobs are on the line following the IBM outsourcing deal are already are seeking legal advice.

Around 500 of the Xerox workers, whose jobs are being transferred to IBM next month, contributed EUR 10 each to a legal fund for advice on the way the companies made the decision.

A circular sent by a staff committee last week to Xerox informed management that staff had sought legal advice on the way they were informed of the move.

It claimed the company may have been in breach of transfer of undertaking obligations, as Xerox advertised the jobs on an IBM recruitment site prior to them being informed. "This means that the information on our jobs migrating to Bulgaria was in the public domain long before we had even been informed that anything was happening," it said.

The circular also outlined ways to appease the affected staff, including proposals on redundancy packages.

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