Global – An e-mail outlining the outsourcing plans of staff was leaked to a Shell protest site by a company insider, according to a news report by ZDnet Asia.

In the e-mail sent on 19 December, Goh Swee Chen, the VP of IT infrastructure at Shell, told staff, "I acknowledge that there will still be uncertainty as we are working through the finalisation of contracts, open resourcing and transition preparations. I encourage you to keep an open mind and take the time to learn more about the suppliers as employers and as business partners."

The e-mail also discussed the transfer of staff, assets plus new and significantly changed jobs in the new IT infrastructure organisation, but makes no mention of redundancies.

Shell is planning to outsource the majority of its global IT operations in a move that will affect about 3,200 staff and contractors worldwide.

A spokeswoman for Shell, "We have been working on simplifying the organisation and generating efficiencies since at least 2005. Our IT Infrastructure Sourcing Program was launched to review the feasibility of outsourcing a substantial part of Shell's global IT Infrastructure services to a limited number of key suppliers.”

Shell employs about 108,000 people worldwide.