Unions seize on 'inferior' offshore call centres report

A report commissioned to research Indian call centre services, and which is due to be published tomorrow, has shown that Indian call centre workers fail to answer queries properly, according to financial services union Amicus.

The results carried out by specialist research firm Contactbable, which is one of three companies engaged by the government into overseas competition in the sector, were reported in the Financial Times today.

The report is expected to reveal that UK-based firms answer 25% more calls per hour than their counterparts in Bangalore and Delhi and resolve 17% more of those calls at the first attempt. However, the report is also expected to reveal that comparable pay rates, at around one ninth of the equivalent European rates, mean that labour costs remain a fraction of those in equivalent UK jobs.

Responding to the FT story, David Fleming, Amicus National Secretary, said: "We already know the answer to any survey that the government has commissioned and so do British consumers. Services will suffer, cost savings will not be transferred to the customer, poor business decisions will be made in pursuit of short term cost savings and company brands will be damaged by offshoring.

"The role for government over offshoring is clear. It must create the business environment where company business decisions are transparent so that employers chasing the latest fad cannot hide behind the glib assertion that they are offshoring to provide a better service."

Amicus has written to Patricia Hewitt to demand a meeting and for full disclosure of all study results prior to a meeting with business leaders scheduled for February 2.

Amicus claim that the company is one of three commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry to investigate the impact of offshoring after 8,000 UK jobs were exported to India between October and December last year.

Amicus said that the report's findings would back research conducted into consumer findings on offshoring that showed 60% of respondents had series concerns over levels of training in Indian and that 61% believed queries would not be resolved properly. Furthermore, some 85% believed that data protection would be comprised and 63% said offshoring would influence what life products they would consider buying.

The union has begun a campaign with the National Union of Students that urges students to refuse deal with companies that offshore to exploit low paid third world economies.

(SP)