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Stressed Indians Leave Call Centres

Irrespective of where you are in the world, working in a call centre has common and continuing health problems in the form of work related stress. Ever since the massive surge in call centres in India, as major companies like BT, outsource UK work in order to save money and increase profit, the Indian call centre scene has been making news; and reflecting the same bad health and safety practices that exist in the industry in the UK.

Stress and the BOS, 'burn-out syndrome' as it is called in India, take it's toll. Along with the de-skilling of Indian University Graduates, on Indian workers in places such as Mumbai.

This week's TUC Risks highlights this problem and refers to a major news item reported in BBC News On line:

Click to go to BBC news itemA 23-year-old man, barely out of college, has been recovering from a heart attack in hospital. According to a report on the BBC News website, his doctor lays the blame with stress and odd hours of work at a Mumbai call centre. Stress, long hours and low pay are driving highly skilled young Indian workers out of the call centre industry.

Even before the impact of the economic crisis could be felt on India's US$11bn business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which gets 70 per cent of all the outsourced work from the US, it was in the grip of a crisis of its own. Several companies, mostly smaller ones unable to maintain international standards, have shut down in Mumbai and Delhi.

Shabana Pavaskar, a senior employee at a reputable call centre in Mumbai, feels it is not a career, just a job. 'I have been working here for many years but there's no promotion, no motivation and the hours are extremely demanding,' she said. 'Overtime is not an option but a compulsion.' Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, author of a new book - 'Who moved my job?' - and a director of the UK National Outsourcing Association, says the rapid growth in other sectors in India is making different industries attractive for young graduates, while the need for a rapid 24/7 responses had driven a lot of companies to recruit on their own doorsteps.

The industry has responded by creating cool recreational facilities and improving infrastructure, but that has failed to stop workers leaving for greener pastures. 'Where's the time to use their damn gym or cafeteria or other facilities?' said Ms Pavaskar.

The BBC news item goes further, reporting that ' Some call centres have lowered their recruitment standards to solicit young people. Several companies, faced with a paucity of graduates, are spreading their net wider by hiring under-graduates. As a result, experts say, the standards are falling and they are losing outsourced work from the US.'

Source: TUC Risks / BBC News

 



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