The Regina-based grain company Viterra has decided to source some of its IT work from India. (CBC)

A Regina-based grain company — Viterra — is looking to Bangalore, India, for some of its office support work.

The company announced Thursday that a total of 46 jobs in its information technology, or IT, department would be eliminated over the next year.

The work will instead be performed by a contractor with operations in India.

"These jobs can be done on site or they can be done remotely," Mike Brooks, Viterra's chief information officer, told CBC News on Thursday. "Either way, it doesn't matter. What's important to understand is we're not changing jobs. Viterra is buying services."

The union representing the affected workers said Thursday that employees were told 30 positions would be gone by December. Another 16 would be eliminated by August, 2010.

Another 10 union jobs were to be reclassified as management positions.

Hugh Wagner, general secretary of the Grain Services Union, said in a release that workers had been warned the grain company was reviewing its IT division.

Wagner said the union offered to meet with the company to find a way to save jobs, but it was turned down.

"It is evident that Viterra was predisposed towards outsourcing, despite the ongoing contributions employees have made to Viterra's success," Wagner said in his release.

He added that the loss of jobs was a blow to Saskatchewan's economy and was not in the spirit of the predecessor company to Viterra, the farmer-owned and controlled co-operative known as the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.