The demonstrators gathered outside the telephone exchange in Blackburn on Thursday.

They are against plans by the firm to open two Indian call centres - in Bangalore and Delhi - employing 2,200 people by 2004.

The Communication Worker's Union fears employees may lose jobs if work is diverted abroad.

The BT shake-up is part of plans which will see the number of UK call centres drop from about 100 to 31, and the number of workers fall from 16,000 to 14,000.

The firm has said that no permanent UK employees will be made redundant as a result of the move, and that there will be no compulsory lay-offs among agency staff.