A lot of the problem in the UK is that this all goes against the British sense of fair play.
Goods and public services are on the whole are pretty expensive in the UK compared to the US and the rest of the EU, and company profits reflect this.
Without exception all the companies that have moved jobs abroad were already making hundreds of millions and in some cases billions of pounds profit per year.
The general public know that none of these jobs had to go abroad in order for the company to remain financially solvent yet overall, we still pay a lot for our goods and pay the same as we did before for a poorer (by poorer I mean more difficult to use) customer service.

It’s not the case that people do not like conversing with someone whose first language is not the same as their own, far from it for the problem is not just confined to call centers as jobs in manufacturing are also being decimated, purely in the persuit of profit.
Globalisation is a wonderful term, it enables company bosses to sleep at night because it absolves their concience of any loyalty to their employees.

Lot of posts whilst I have been out at my local beer festival …Adnamszzzzzzzzzzzz….. glad you have dropped in on this Sameer, good to see things from another perspective With respect I will read your postings in the morning, when I can see them properly, and comment accordingly.
Cheers for now,
Phil.

I dispair sometimes, I really do 🙁

I think they often get round this purely by the fact that the physical database does not transferred outside the EU. Thanks to high capacity data links the information is viewed on a screen and amended/processed or input with keystokes in a land far away. The information never actually leaves the EU.

The company training will contain security elements to the effect “never disclose to an unauthorised third party any information you see on a screen, failure to comply will result in a serious disciplinary offence” Now tick the box if you understand.
Once training is completed a veiled reference to this element of company policy will be displayed and requires aknowledgement each time the operative logs on. “by pressing enter at this point you confirm that you are authorised to use the ‘xyz123 system’ and are aware of company policy regarding data security”

This is generally deemed sufficient, sadly all too often it isn’t.

As if by magic, from todays BBC News website business section.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4603765.stm

DME……..If your work, or anyones, is predominantly screen based YOUR job is just as ‘at risk’ for you are now about to become the expensive ‘middle man’.
It is only a matter of time before English becomes the predominant second language in China, Indonesia and the eastern pacific rim.
Call center firms will then move even further east, leaving a highly qualified workforce in India with nothing to do. Watch screen based jobs in the west fly eastwards then.
Remember most of those currently working in Indian call centers are University educated to a very high standard and are only working in that industry because it pays more than being a doctor, scientist, engineer.
It is a little known fact that in Bangalore and other areas where there are high concentrations of call centers there is already a terrible shortage of medical staff that causes real health care issues in a very poor nation.
People are dying in these places because there are not enough doctors and nurses.

Nice idea, but I don’t work there now, Spring 2004 after 30 years I took the money and ran 🙂
I will suggest it to those I am still in contact with though I suspect that finding out what is need would prove to be difficult.
The firms that outscource are just as cagey as to whom they give the work to.
In my particular case (I worked for the Uk’s major telecomms company) the doctrine they have followed of shedding “non core business” has been taken up by many other firms.
To give just one example the old local personel departments were centralised and renamed Human Rescources (I have always thought the person who thought that title up had a sick sense of humour).
This was then outsourced to a succession of firms, all of who were worse than their predicessors and it has finally come to rest with a company called Accenture.
Never heard of them, nice ‘Westen’ sounding name though…. until you have cause to get in touch and shock horror the HR call centre is now outscourced even further to a call center in India.
Trouble with your wages, time sheets, sick leave, employment or training records ? Simple just pick up the phone dial a single point of contact 0800 number and speak to someone who can’t make head nor tail of your broad East Anglian tones, hasn’t got a clue and also couldn’t give a carrot about what you were talking about 😡 .

Very good point regarding the Data Protection Act Damien