Senator wants disclosure on outsourced calls
Senator Charles Schumer speaks at the NAACP's Centennial Convention, in New York, July 12, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Chip East
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a bid to reduce outsourcing of U.S. jobs, a Democratic senator said on Sunday he will push legislation to make companies inform customers when their calls were being transferred outside the United States and charge companies for those transferred calls.
"This bill will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back," Senator Charles Schumer said in statement.
Customers calling 800 numbers are often transferred overseas, and in such cases the bill would mandate that callers be told where their calls were rerouted.
Companies would also be required to certify to the Federal Trade Commission annually that they were complying with the requirement, and face penalties if they did not certify.
Schumer's bill would also impose a $0.25 excise tax on any customer service call placed inside the United States which is transferred to an agent in a foreign location. The fee would be assessed on the company that transferred the call.
Customer service call centers have become increasingly popular with businesses in recent years to deal with questions ranging from billing to technical support.
But the practice brings frequent complaints from customers who say their issues are not resolved or that representatives are merely providing scripted responses.
Schumer said the most popular countries for outsourcing of U.S. call centers included India, Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines and South Africa, places where workers generally receive lower wages and work longer hours than their U.S. counterparts.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud, editing by Vicki Allen)
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I openly applaud the Senator.
This Legislation is immediately generative of core-professional jobs and appropriately punative to companies that seek incremental profits via outsourcing the core of US productivity, while taking advantage of our Labor’s financial support. Most recently through the bail-out packages.
All TARP recipient Banks should immediately move (”All”) call centers operations back to the United States Domestic Proper. PERIOD…
This should be expected to pass with a bi-partisan majority behind it.
We’ve a global market that should not be closed to advancement of our local interests.
Senator Schumer, Good Work.
Call centers are global. The same ones in the US are owned by the same in other countries. Call center jobs are of the lowest paying for those in the US. One cannot exist on that type of salary. If indeed the skill-set needed to be a call center agent were such that demanded such a high wage, then of course a company would push for their own call center, not outsourced to a call center in the US or another country.
The gorilla was born out of the automobile industry and cheap goods from Japan and then other Asian nations. This is not by chance but design. The US is a consumer economy and has been for decades. The change needs to be higher wage manufacturing jobs and new industry.
The world has become very global more than most myopics think. Impeding that progress hurts the same countries the myopics want to change.
And just so all are aware, call center agents are taught what to say when. It’s ALL scripted with little variance, whether outside or inside the US. That will not change with legislation, just as a drop of iodine will not stop gangrene.
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