Another company moves call centre to India

[Florence]

While reading the local evening paper I came across this.

Call-centre jobs are switched to India.
Jobs at a Salford-based credit card firm are to be transferred to a call centre in India. about 900 staff at Citicredit, st The Quays, have been warned some posts could be lost. It is understood that 80 jobs will be transferred but 40 of those affected would be offered alternative work within the company.
The firm deals with inquiries from one million credit card holders throughout the UK.
One member of staff said " At present, there is a deligation of managers and trainers from India at Salford being trained by the very staff whose jobs they will be taking."
A spokesman for the parent company Citigroup said the company is conducting a business review but remains committed to keeping its credit cards business in Manchester. He added: "This review impacts on only a small minority of employees. The majority of staff will continue to support the existing business." Taken from The Manchester Evening News 4.2.04

What an insult to the british workforce having to train those who will take their jobs...

I certainly wouldn't use a credit card company who uses outsourced call centres.

[Bex]

Originally Posted by Kitty

What an insult to the british workforce having to train those who will take their jobs...

I certainly wouldn't use a credit card company who uses outsourced call centres.

i know it is ridiculous...as most of you know i work for the Abbey (national) and we are developing a call centre in indian and i think that it is stupid..and have voiced my opinion......saying that though our main call centre is in glasgow and when the boys phone through to us i generally cant understand them anyway... but i think british companies should stay in britian and not try all these silly money cutting things......customers want to be able to know they are talking to someone in the same country as them and not making international calls

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Kitty

While reading the local evening paper I came across this.

What an insult to the british workforce having to train those who will take their jobs...

I certainly wouldn't use a credit card company who uses outsourced call centres.

This was in the London Evening Standard last night...

guess you won't be travelling by train much and will need to find a new current account provider.

India to answer half of British rail queries
Press Trust of India

London, February 5: At least half of all calls to national rail enquiries in Britain will be handled from India under a 100 million pounds contract awarded on Wednesday evening.

The association of train operating companies said BT and Ventura had won the five-year contracts from April after an exhaustive tendering process.

A spokesperson of the association said BTâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s calls would be answered by their partner client logic at centres in Bangalore in India and Derby and Newcastle in the UK while Venturaââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s calls will be answered in Mumbai in India and Dearne valley, South Yorkshire.

About 150,000 people call the rail enquiries service each day, making it the busiest number in the UK. Under the new deals half of these calls will be answered at Indian centres.

Train operators are the latest big names to switch call centres to India, after banks HSBC and Abbey, and insurer Axa, in moves, which unions say have cost 50,000 jobs.

Last month home shopping catalogue companies Kays and great universal cancelled their Indian call centres, claiming they provided a poor service and restored their UK service, creating 250 jobs.

[Florence]

One main point is would you want someone in another country access to your details... After all the Data protection act only covers us in this country.. what security have we got that our details will not be handed around to others.. On security I will not use any company that uses Indian call centres that deal in money. I will not give out any details to the indian call centres.

[Bex]

Originally Posted by Kitty

One main point is would you want someone in another country access to your details... After all the Data protection act only covers us in this country.. what security have we got that our details will not be handed around to others.. On security I will not use any company that uses Indian call centres that deal in money. I will not give out any details to the indian call centres.

that is actually a good point about the DPA and one that i had not previously thought about

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Kitty

One main point is would you want someone in another country access to your details... After all the Data protection act only covers us in this country.. what security have we got that our details will not be handed around to others.. On security I will not use any company that uses Indian call centres that deal in money. I will not give out any details to the indian call centres.

So HSBC, Abbey, Barclays, Axa, BT, Aviva won't be seeing much of your business. Nationwide would be a good place for your monies.

Actually it coveres Europe, not the UK, but thats not really relevant here.

A similar para exists for customer information, but in principal the data controller remains the same, it is the data processor that changes

V1.0 August 2002 50 The Employment Practices DP Code Part 2: Employment Records

15 OUTSOURCING DATA PROCESSING

Frequently, organisations do not process all the data they hold on workers themselves but outsource this to other organisations. Organisations which process the data on behalf of other organisations include specialist businesses which run payroll systems, sister companies which manage the centralised computer system on which group worker records are kept, and organisations which provide a secure facility for the storage of archived manual records. Such organisations are termed †˜data processorsââ ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ in the Data Protection Act.
The benchmarks

1. Satisfy yourself that any data processor you choose adopts appropriate security measures both in terms of the technology it uses and how it is managed.
2. Have in place a written contract with any data processor you choose that requires it to process personal information only on your instructions, and to maintain appropriate security.
3. Where the use of a data processor would involve a transfer of information about a worker to a country outside the European Economic Area, ensure that there is a proper basis for making the transfer.
http://ico-cms.amaze.co.uk/DocumentU...%20records.pdf

perhaps we should all move to the Co-op

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/3460967.stm

[Florence]

I have heard that Kays and Great Universal stores have both closed the Indian call centres. Reporting that they didn't have as good a quality service and created 250 jobs back in the UK.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Kitty

I have heard that Kays and Great Universal stores have both closed the Indian call centres. Reporting that they didn't have as good a quality service and created 250 jobs back in the UK.

http://forum.nthellworld.co.uk/showp...84&postcount=3

Last Para

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Kitty

I have heard that Kays and Great Universal stores have both closed the Indian call centres. Reporting that they didn't have as good a quality service and created 250 jobs back in the UK.

well that is a start and hopefully not the end of it , pay peanuts and get monkeys .............. , and nop before someone jumps on me , i am not being racist

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Kitty

I have heard that Kays and Great Universal stores have both closed the Indian call centres. Reporting that they didn't have as good a quality service and created 250 jobs back in the UK.

I wish 3 would take advice from that

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

well that is a start and hopefully not the end of it , pay peanuts and get monkeys .............. , and nop before someone jumps on me , i am not being racist

They are not paying peanuts in local terms though, these are hardly the Nike sweatshops of old.

I think this raises an interesting conundrum about how we fit into the worlds economy. We have accepted that most of our shoes, clothes etc are produced and assembled offshore as this reduces the labour costs of construction and the cost to the end user. I don't hear of anyone boycotting Next because the source their T Shirts from the Phillipines.

Most of those in the midlands that would have historically been sewing garments are now gainfully employed in other aspects of the economy.

Technology has moved on to enable us to outsource people skills, such as answering phones. This should in time mean that those who would have been doing these jobs can be put to better use in the UK economy.

Of course this is of no benefit to you if it's your job, but in the long run if this works it should benefit both India and the UK.

[Julian]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

well that is a start and hopefully not the end of it , pay peanuts and get monkeys .............. , and nope before someone jumps on me , i am not being racist

Agreed Paul, I was going to post the point re: race earlier mate.

For me, it doesn't matter what country - just that it is being moved from here.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

They are not paying peanuts in local terms though, these are hardly the Nike sweatshops of old.

I think this raises an interesting conundrum about how we fit into the worlds economy. We have accepted that most of our shoes, clothes etc are produced and assembled offshore as this reduces the labour costs of construction and the cost to the end user. I don't hear of anyone boycotting Next because the source their T Shirts from the Phillipines.

Most of those in the midlands that would have historically been sewing garments are now gainfully employed in other aspects of the economy.

Technology has moved on to enable us to outsource people skills, such as answering phones. This should in time mean that those who would have been doing these jobs can be put to better use in the UK economy.

Of course this is of no benefit to you if it's your job, but in the long run if this works it should benefit both India and the UK.

but they are paying peanuts compared to what would be paid in this country arent they , accept your point about the clothing though , maybe we should all buy clothes made in this country , if there any still made here of course

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

but they are paying peanuts compared to what would be paid in this country arent they , accept your point about the clothing though , maybe we should all buy clothes made in this country , if there any still made here of course

Even M&S over the last 4 years has largely switched to non UK manufacture as it could no longer compete and pricing was a factor.

COATS VIYELLA is / was the last major UK clothing manufacturer. Basically when M&S pulled the plug they had to follow suit with their staff.

Marks & Spencer, instead of pontificating that they have supported British manufacturing more than any other retailers, should remember that it was British manufacturing that made Marks & Spencer what it was. You do not have to pay consultants £20 million to point out your sales have declined since you dropped your policy of advertising your goods as top quality and British made. They are not just statistics. They are the facts. Thousands of disillusioned customers are pointing that out to them for nothing. What arrogance for them to claim these order books are theirs. Our members design these products, providing the technical development to ensure their quality, and can produce them better than anyone. If these businesses are to be sold, then the fruits of our members' labour go with them.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cac...hl=en&ie=UTF-8