US bill aims to choke call centres in India

nrj

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Houston: A bipartisan bill has been tabled in the US House of Representatives to make companies that move call centres overseas ineligible for grants or guaranteed loans from the federal government, a move aimed at stemming the tide of jobs heading to nations like India.

Introduced by Rep Tim Bishop and Rep David McKinley, the US Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act would also put some aggressive mandates on call-centre operations.

"Outsourcing is one of the scourges of our economy and why we are struggling so to knock down the unemployment rate," said Bishop.

Under the protectionist legislation, not only would customer service representatives working overseas for US corporations have to disclose their locations upon request, they would also have to offer callers the option of being transferred to call centres back in America, the 'Huffington Post' reported.

Besides, the proposed legislation requires the Secretary of Labour to maintain a list of employers that locate call centres overseas. The companies also require to provide 120-day advance notification before moving a call centre overseas.

The call-centre bill has strong backing from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a union which represents 150,000 call centre workers in the US.

In a report, issued recently by the CWA, the union alleged that outsourced call centres, including some based in India, pose a serious security threat as there are insufficient safeguards in place to deter fraud.

The report titled 'Why Shipping Call Center Jobs Overseas Hurts Us Back Home' cited several examples of security breaches involving outsourced call centres, including in India.

US bill aims to choke call centres in India - Business News - IBNLive
 

agentperry

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a common american demands 11-12 dollars per hour for a call center job. Indians work for a fourth or a fifth of that sum.
either american companies will shut down or the bill will be thrown into dustbin
 

Vyom

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I think this is something that needs to oscillate. They cannot continue to just watch companies taking all the jobs to the outsourced centers. They would need to arrest this trend for a while in order to make things even, IMO.
 

nrj

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a common american demands 11-12 dollars per hour for a call center job. Indians work for a fourth or a fifth of that sum.
either american companies will shut down or the bill will be thrown into dustbin
East Asians are ready to work for 1/12th of that sum. Indians are expensive these days.
 

Bangalorean

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^^ Agreed, agentperry. Domestic economy is what we should focus on more and more. IT and ITES needs to reform and reinvent itself in India. I am sure they will do it just fine. :namaste:
 

nrj

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ITES are growing in India like Paanthelas.

Talking of serving domestic industry, how about GOI give some competition to NIC & allow pvt players to fill tenders ? :D
 

Bangalorean

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ITES are growing in India like Paanthelas.

Talking of serving domestic industry, how about GOI give some competition to NIC & allow pvt players to fill tenders ? :D
There is so much work to be done on the government IT front. Computerization of land records, bureaucracy, telecommuting for bureaucrats - oh, the list is endless.

This kind of government spending on IT, with competitive bidding will be the best thing possible for IT industry in India, and for Indian government also.
 

trackwhack

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The era of call centers in India is over. No major companies are investing in them anymore and many of them are shifting their existing infrastructure to cater to domestic operations. Its a natural progression of moving up the value chain. High value transaction processing is where more business is coming in and there is nothing much Americans can do about it considering there is manpower shortage and lack of competitive skills here. You cannot read an X-Ray or study a litigation unless you are qualified enough. There aren't enough qualified professionals in the US to support the volume of work. All call center firms are moving upwards in the value chain and those that don't will go broke or get acquired. It is a good thing.
 

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