The online version of the Weekend Guardian is carrying a story from its paper-based sister on the growing trend for major UK companies to outsource their call centre activities to contractors in India and Pakistan.
Indians heed call of the west makes for depressing reading for those of us involved in the contact centre industry, whether in the West or the East. Europeans in £18-£20k first line jobs with no regional language requirements grow ever more concerned about losing their jobs when their companies take the seemingly inevitable step of migrating the business to markets with cheaper labour costs. Those in the Indian subcontinent who take their place often do so knowing that, despite their university degrees and impeccable English, they will more than like be working in what Narendar Pani of the Economic Times newspaper calls "Industrial Revolution conditions" for little more than £2,000 per year.
Those companies who, like my employer, are a little more cautious often chose the 'middle' way by relocating functions and headcount to Australia and the PacAsia region, where highly skilled technical staff can still be hired for significantly less than is possible in the US or Europe. Ironically, it is companies like the one I work for whose networks and technicians make such global communications easier and cheaper with each passing year.
A case of being hoisted by one's own petard, methinks.
Posted by bignoseduglyguy at October 19, 2003 05:59 PM | TrackBack