A Scottish financial institution is to launch a pilot scheme next year for outsourcing work to India, it was confirmed today.

Scottish Widows said the pilot scheme would involve the equivalent of 30 to 50 jobs, and insisted there would be no job losses.

But a union voiced alarm at the move and warned that moving jobs offshore to India was a spectre that was haunting the Scottish economy.

Graham Hunt, senior representative of the Amicus union at Scottish Widows, said: ?Amicus is doing everything in its power to protect Scottish jobs.?

He said the union planned to meet the company, and would also take part in a meeting of a financial services strategy group convened by enterprise minister Jim Wallace later this month.

The union said its own research suggested 20,000 Scottish jobs could be at risk as part of a global trend which experts believe could see two million jobs from the West exported to India by 2008.

Earlier this year Lloyds TSB, of which Scottish Widows is part, said it planned to expand a small-scale operation in Bangalore, and open up an operation in Hyderabad.

Scottish Widows said in September it was exploring the possibility of a pilot operation but stressed this was in the early planning stages.

Today it said that pilot would involve 30 to 50 roles, and pledged: ?There will be no job losses within Scottish Widows as a result of the pilot.

?Scottish Widows is committed to keeping all staff informed throughout.?

It said it would continue talking to unions at each stage in the process.

Edinburgh council leader Donald Andersons said tonight: ?Scottish Widows has had tremendous value from Edinburgh workers in the past.

?We will be monitoring this situation very closely and we will be asking Scottish Widows what the implications of this are.

?The world is a competitive place and things can move very quickly, so we have to avoid complacency about Edinburgh?s economy.?