BT to Unions: India gives better quality service

BT hit back by saying India centres were providing better quality of service than in the UK.

While union activists protested in London on Wednesday against the "export" of call centre jobs to India by British Telecom, the telecom giant hit back at the protests saying that call centres set up in India a few months ago were already providing a better quality of service than in the UK.

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The firm faced complaints from a few shareholders at its annual meeting in London, while union activists paraded a 12ft high inflatable pink elephant in protest at the jobs "stampede".

However, BT Retail chief executive Pierre Danon said after the meeting that the company's two call centres in India, which will employ 2,200 workers by the end of the year, were proving to be a great success. The centres, which send out bill reminders and deal with directory inquiry calls, are up to 40 per cent cheaper than those in the UK.

Danon said the quality of service was "sometimes better" in the India centres, adding: "We are delighted with the performance of the two Indian centres and our early experiences have been very positive in achieving very favourable customer satisfaction levels."

But Danon also pointed out that despite the "commendable" performance of the Indian centres, BT will be developing 31 state-of-the-art call centres in the UK, staffed by around 17,000 workers, at a cost of £105 million, which "dwarfed" the £3 million being invested in India. He said: "I know of no other contact centre operator in the UK that is investing more in this country and its people. Our plans for India are measured and responsible, designed to make BT more competitive and better able to serve our customers. That in the longer term is crucial to safeguard our jobs in the UK."

Nevertheless, Communication Workers Union (CWU) general secretary Billy Hayes warned that more than 200,000 call centre and other service sector jobs could be exported from the UK within the next five years. The Union also said call centre workers in India were paid about 70p an hour, or £3,000 a year, about a fifth of the wages in the UK.

BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland defended the company's move and remained defiant during a two-hour question and answer session at the shareholders' meeting. At the start of the meeting Sir Bland said: "We have transformed uncertainty into clarity, low morale into enthusiasm, loss into profit, a suspended dividend into a significant one. In terms of operational and financial performance, BT has had a really good year."