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 such as India.
Introduced by Rep Mr Tim Bishop and Rep Mr 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 Mr 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
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 1. lakh 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.
Owing to the insufficient protections in place, it is impossible to deter this type of fraud, the report said.
Some call centre operators, particularly those in rural areas, are trying hard to compete with overseas call centres — and some rural call centre operators say they are seeing a trend toward companies moving call centres back to the US.
The ability of home-based workers to use a broadband connection to conduct call centre duties has helped fuel that trend.
Reverse' call centre outsourcing — driven by broadband — could create one lakh US jobs. If passed, the proposed call centre legislation would likely further fuel a move of call centre jobs back to the US.