Overseas Call Centers Target Of Anti-Outsourcing Bill

WASHINGTON -- Saying they hope to stem the tide of jobs heading overseas, legislators introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday in the House that would punish American corporations for offshoring their telephone call centers, making such companies ineligible for grants or guaranteed loans from the federal government.

Introduced by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), the protectionist legislation would also put some aggressive mandates on call-center operations. Not only would customer service representatives working overseas for U.S. corporations have to disclose their locations upon request, they would also have to offer callers the option of being transferred to call centers back in America.

"Outsourcing is one of the scourges of our economy and one of the reasons we are struggling to knock down the unemployment rate and reduce the number of Americans who are out of work," Bishop said in a conference call with reporters. "We can't prohibit it, but we can certainly discourage it."

Although some call-center jobs have trickled back into the U.S. in recent years, the long-term trend has shown thousands of American-based customer service positions being outsourced to India and the Philippines, where workers come considerably cheaper. The Philippines' call-center industry recently surpassed India's as the largest in the world, according to a report in USA Today.

The call-center bill has strong backing from the Communications Workers of America, a union representing 700,000 workers, more than 150,000 of whom are customer service reps. Ron Collins, CWA's chief of staff, said that Americans have been losing decent-paying call-center jobs so that large corporations can save on labor costs. He praised AT&T for its decision to bring 5,000 customer service jobs back to the U.S. as part of its merger with T-Mobile.

"When I talk about this, I talk about it from experience," said Collins, a former Verizon call-center worker. "This bill is a very important step forward -- for jobs, for workers and for customers."

In addition to scuttling any grants or guaranteed loans for a period of five years, the U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act would require that companies that are about to offshore call-center jobs notify the Labor Department 120 days before they do so. The companies would then be put on a public list. Bishop said the law would apply to businesses in all industries.

Such a bill is unlikely to garner strong support from anti-protectionist, free-trade GOP members of Congress, but the inclusion of the call-center rules adds an interesting wrinkle. Given the widespread frustration of customers who end up on long calls with agents overseas, plenty of constituents, Republican and Democrat alike, would probably appreciate the option of dealing more regularly with customer service reps based in America.

"With Rep. McKinley as my primary Republican co-sponsor, I'm very hopeful he can bring a good number of his colleagues to the table," Bishop said. "It's hard to defend the practice. It's hard to say we would rather employ someone in the Philippines than in the U.S."

To bolster their case, the CWA said it plans to release a report next week that shows that consumer fraud and identity theft is higher at call centers abroad than in the U.S.

Comments

[scout2finch]

10:48 AM on 04/24/2013

Is there a way to file a complaint against a company that fails to transfer you to a US Representive?
Are companies required to even do that anymore?

[Marvin Elam]

04:18 PM on 03/28/2012

I just got of the phone with a guy named Eddie Jones, with indian accent, and I recorded over 40 minutes of him trying to get my girlfriend to pay 5000.00 to cover a loan, Eddie claimed she got from Advanced America Cash Advance. We called Advance America and they said they have placed a warning on their website that their name is being used to commit fraud. This guy was relentless and called my girlfriend at work, on her cell and at home. I got involved today and let him think we would actually consider paying this. You would not believe some of the things he said. I have found, in my work as a consultant that some of the information these guys are getting may come from customer service centers that are off shore. And we have notices that the number of frauds we are getting at my clients company (And my client is worth billions), have increased with the number of call centers being used overseas. Of shore call centers aren't as secure as those in the US. I know this for a fact because I have visited them and have audited them. Even though they may make calls using networks based in the US. The agents themselves to don't get the same background investigation as we use in the states. So not all credit fraud is because someone hacked in to your computer, stole your mail or breached the firewall of a US company.

[starring699]

03:02 PM on 01/14/2012

and I did not include working during our typhoon season, the equivalent of your tornado season the equivalent of a tsunami season. You name it, we work through it even if there is going to be a coup de etat in my country we can manage working through it.

[starring699]

02:58 PM on 01/14/2012

I'm from the Philippines. I work in a call center servicing American customers. I get paid $300 a month . I work for 9 hours including 1 hour lunch break and 2 15-minute coffee breaks. I have overtime and night differential because I worked according to US time. I worked during NEW YEAR, CHRISTMAS,THANKSGIVING,,HOLY WEEK and all the other American and all Philippines Holidays. I smile and are discouraged from talking down or back and from being rude and sarcastic to customers who were. After and before our work time, we do huddles or briefing . It could last for 15 minutes to an hour and its not paid.

I love my job . It feeds maybe a mother , a father and a sister and me. Can you find someone who can do the exact same job above and still manage to enjoy life and be tahnkful for the blessings. I pray this bill will not pass but if it will and my present job is taken back from me, I believe that another will replace it ( although it would be a struggle waitign for that) because although I get paid cheap, the quality of MY WORK IS NOT and a lot of foreign businessmen who invested in my country knows that. We provide excelling quality of work at the cheapest rate in the WORLD. Mabuhay!

[Marvin Elam]

04:32 PM on 03/28/2012

I have family in Manila and I understand your position. I live here in the US (born and raised) and one of my biggest clients, worth over 1 billion, off shores their customer service. I can tell you, it isn't the quality that they are attracted by, its the fact that your job here in the US would pay between $1,700.00 to $2,600.00 a month, offers health insurance, paid holidays and vacations. Not do burst your bubble, but all foriegn business off shore because they save millions a month for cheaper labor in countries that don't have or enforce labor laws like those in the US. Here are a couple of websites you should check out. Not to be rude, but its a reality.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19320661.aspx

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/executive-adviser/2008-3/5032/how-offshore-outsourcing-affects-customer-satisfaction/

http://hewlett-packard-hp-reviews.measuredup.com/Complaint-Hewlett-Packard-has-NO-customer-service-2277

[WARBLADE]

06:24 AM on 01/12/2012

After all, call centers are really sucksa anyway. ;-p

[wisdom67]

12:22 PM on 01/10/2012

This bill is a start in the right direction...but it fails to attack the central problem of our governments support for companies investment overseas. We should tax money earned overseas whether it is returned here or not. We should remove some of the incentives to move our jobs overseas, if you want to outsource to other countries fine but you get no government assistance to do so. Off the point a bit but look at Apple and Samsung...Apple ships a great deal of its patents overseas to countries that do not have the same property protection laws as we do and then complains that its patents are being violated or in other cases have a large problem with counterfeits which probably are made by the same companies that are making the products for Apple overseas. I wonder if their the money lost is not more than the reduced cost of labor in those foreign markets.

[ckimble]

02:20 PM on 01/09/2012

Protectionist?

If you are an American company, then you are eligible for American dollars.

If you are a "Global" company, then you are not eligible for American dollars.

[Sudhir Kumar]

10:42 PM on 12/20/2011

This is all window dressing. Congress saying they can't stop outsourcing. India, China and Philippines are the most protectionist economy. That's one reason India could become self sufficient.
Google FDI retail in India you will see they are not allowing Walmart to open store there. I grew up in India I know how it is. Congress want to keep people in dark about all these. The end is nearing for all these US Politician. People will clean house soon. With OWS the momentum is gaining and there will be not turning back.

[ConexionPoint]

04:44 PM on 12/15/2011

What should be proposed is to consider Latin America into this bill. It is a real fact that every call center seat you place into Latin America reduces illegal immigration by 4. People who normally work in the centers are not trying to enter illegally however they support the infrastructure that does. Let’s take advantage and do something that helps all. We should take care of ourselves and help our neighbors along the way. Maybe with the election season on its way someone will look into this idea.

[Roy Lawson]

10:39 AM on 12/15/2011

I like the motivation driving the bill, however their solution doesn't really do anything to solve the fundamental problems.

Fundamentally, the problem is that our trade and foreign economic policies aren't based on balanced trade or fairness. Our nation has subscribed to the notion that "free trade" is the magic pill that will solve everything, and as trade became more and more liberalized (free-er) our deficits soared.

The problem is that in order to have fair trade, you need a system of reward and punishment. The simple solution is a tariff that automatically rises and falls as the trade balance grows or shrinks. If an algorithm based in fairness is used, trade partners know exactly what they must to do increase exports to the United States (increase imports of our goods and services).

I'm a big fan of simply having a goal of balanced trade and using basic math to offset imbalance. Then it doesn't really matter if call centers move to China, because if they have a trade surplus we tax all goods and services from China until balance is restored.

Why over-complicate things and protect a specific industry? Let's protect our entire nation and require balanced trade. I would say that a deficit of 0-3% should be "free trade" - or no tariff. For every percent change, add a 1% tariff beyond 3%, starting with 3%. So a 25% deficit would result in a 25% tariff. Keep it simple.

[econ1]

12:44 PM on 12/14/2011

I gotta say that our governing class seems to have lost its mind. Legislating where companies can do certain functions globally or nationally is going to turn out badly. Today building planes or answering phones, tomorrow bending steel or assembling TVs. If people wonder why companies aren't investing one reason would be politicians floating ideas like this. Why would you invest in anything new anywhere if the government might come in and tell you to move it in a year. If people don't like having their calls taken in an Indian accent they can let the company know by moving their business.

[ckimble]

02:23 PM on 01/09/2012

Because the labor is cheap and profit margins are high(er).

Do you really believe that China or India is a free market? C'mon.

[Laurel Sayler]

08:48 PM on 01/11/2012

No one is legislating where a company can do business. This bill just takes the rewards away for outsourcing jobs to other countries. Why should any company get a tax break if they take jobs out of our economy?

[sdphoneman]

10:52 AM on 12/13/2011

This bill is completely insane! If you want more jobs in America, have more competitive workers and a better Education System.

[Mortimer5Spencer]

08:13 AM on 12/11/2011

Hi Dave,

Would you mention the name and bill number when writing about new legislattion? It would be helpful when trying to read the bill at thomas.gov. That information is left out of articles all the time.

Thanks

[Shaun Hensley]

12:04 PM on 12/09/2011

Now that outsourcing affects them, cubicle dwellers expect solidarity? *remembers Buy Nothing Day last Black Friday*, nope, you aren't there with folks who work or used to work in manufacturing, I see no reason to be there for you.

[Arianwen Everett]

03:06 PM on 12/12/2011

So, it's more important to stick it to the cublicle dwellers than ensure that your kids have greater options in life? Think about it, more jobs of any sort mean more opportunities for American workers to recover their footing. Fewer jobs mean infighting between workers for what scraps are left and that supresses wage growth for the majority of workers. Petty thinking along these lines just helps the 1% continue their global pillage.

[Shaun Hensley]

04:00 AM on 12/13/2011

You think about it. Get on board with fair trade. Solidarity goes both ways.

[dpaustex]

04:29 PM on 12/08/2011

Can we outsource our Congress to overseas? Then cut the phone line?