Trade union GMB is calling for an investigation of British Airways, after a plan came to light of the airline’s intention to outsource up to 900 IT jobs to an Indian contractor. The union claims this could be a potential breach of immigration rules.

If the plan were to move forward GMB said that these IT roles at the airline would be made redundant prior to the transition to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The new IT workers would return to the United Kingdom under an intra-company transfer and earn £10,000 per year with £8,400 in expenses. Home Office rules currently require a minimum yearly wage of £24,800 for foreign workers under the Tier 2 visa.

GMB represents a large number of British Airways employees and first questioned the airline’s plans by writing to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and the Home Office in December 2015. As it stands, under current Tier 2 visa rules, a non-EU worker cannot replace a permanent United Kingdom employee and cannot be sponsored to undertake an ongoing routine role. Foreign workers can only be used during a time-restricted service or project.

This intervention actually follows research from the MAC in January when it reported the misuse of Tier 2 visas. The research revealed that Tier 2 visas allowed IT suppliers with UK operations to hire staffs from overseas, cutting IT costs but not actually contributing to the stock of IT skills within the UK.

The GMB national officer said he believes there was “no way” this many workers could be classed as contractors working on a specific project. If the plan commences, non-EU workers on Tier 2 visas will be performing the same job functions as current full-time staff, just at half the cost for the airline.

British Airways has responded saying, “IT services are now provided globally by a range of suppliers and this is very common practice across all industries”.