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At The End of The Line

HSBC bank has over 3,100 call center staff in Asia answering calls from British customers, with plans to increase that number to 4,500 by the end of the year. The CEO of HSBC justified moving call center jobs overseas by claiming that workers in Asia are more efficient and often graduates, though lower wages of $4 per day in India also allow the company to cut costs. Other British companies like British Airways and Zurich Insurance have also moved call center jobs abroad. A union in the UK expressed concern about Thames Water's plans to cut 150 UK jobs initially and possibly 1,000 total by moving call center services to India in order to reduce costs. Meanwhile, call center jobs remain important employers in Britain, expected

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812 views

At The End of The Line

HSBC bank has over 3,100 call center staff in Asia answering calls from British customers, with plans to increase that number to 4,500 by the end of the year. The CEO of HSBC justified moving call center jobs overseas by claiming that workers in Asia are more efficient and often graduates, though lower wages of $4 per day in India also allow the company to cut costs. Other British companies like British Airways and Zurich Insurance have also moved call center jobs abroad. A union in the UK expressed concern about Thames Water's plans to cut 150 UK jobs initially and possibly 1,000 total by moving call center services to India in order to reduce costs. Meanwhile, call center jobs remain important employers in Britain, expected

Uploaded by

Alex Bran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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At the end of the line

Next time you phone a call centre , your customer service adviser could be talking to you
from India . Helen Taylor looks at how companies are increasingly farming out their
operations abroad , all in the name of cost cutting .
The chief executive of HSBC bank , Sir Keith Whitson , caused uproar recently when he
said he would rather use call centre workers in India than those in Britain . He claimed
that workers in Asia are smartly dressed , enthusiastic , more efficient and are often
graduates . of course , he may also have been persuaded by the fact that wages in India
are about 4$ a day , which is more like the hourly rate over here .
The bank already has 3,100 call centre staff in Asia answering calls from British
customers , and it expects to increase that to 4,500 by the end of the year . With wages so
low , the additional cost of redirecting phone calls to India is easily met . And HSBC isn't
the only company to be looking East . British Airways , Zurich Insurance , GE and others
have all sent their call centre services overseas.
The public service workers' union , UNISON , is concerned by Thames Water's recent
decision to export its call centre services , probably to India, in an attempt to reduce its
overall costs . The company plans to cut 150 jobs initially , adding that a possible 1000
staff could be affected in some way in the future . " The proposal to transfer these jobs
out of the UK is very worrying indeed " said UNISON regional officer , Ron Harley . "
This is a slap in the face for our members who have worked tirelessly to improve services
to customer over many years
ut in spite of job losses in the industry , with BT alone axing more than two thousand
posts earlier this year , call centres remain a major employer in Britain . One job in 50 in
Britain is currently in a call centre , which is expected to rise to one in 30 in the next five
or six years . And that is in spite of serious concerns about working conditions in the
industry , with complaints about stress , bullying and unreasonable workloads.
In India , however , call centre work is seen as highly desirable . With school teachers
earning just 50$ a month , call centre wages of double that are seen as attractive . This
means the industry attracts the young , well-educated , middle classes who are eager to
work in a clean and modern environment . A recent BBC Radio 4 programme , India
Calling , how may I help ?, described the great lengths that would-be employees in India

have to go to in order to work in a British call centre . Many pay a massive 200$ for a
three week training course on the finer points of British culture , such as which Spice Girl
married David Beckham and the plot of East Enders. They are also taught how to
'neutralize' their accents to suit a British audience and some adopt English names.

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