Proposed US law alarms RP-based call centers

PHILIPPINE-BASED contact centers view as a potential threat the proposal of a US senator to impose restrictions and charges on companies that will outsource some operations to other countries. The US bill is meant to protect American jobs and discourage outsourcing, but some experts say outsourcing actually helps US businesses seeking to survive the crisis by cutting costs in the deployment of parts of their operations to other countries.

Jojo Uligan, corporate secretary and executive director of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), said the bill, if passed, might force American firms to stop outsourcing, if the charges to be imposed will be too high so as to offset their cost savings from outsourcing.

“Although nothing is concrete yet, we will be closely monitoring that [bill],” Uligan told the BusinessMirror. He said, right now, American firms get to save up to 30 percent in operational cost by outsourcing some of their operations to the Philippines.

Because of this, some lawmakers and officials of several states in the US are in favor of outsourcing.

Surely, Uligan said, the effects and impact of clamping down on outsourcing by American companies will be fully discussed in the hearings for the bill.

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer was reported to have also filed a bill forcing companies to inform their customers when their calls are being transferred outside of the US. These companies will then be charged for the calls they transferred to another location.

“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,” Schumer’s statement was quoted by Reuters news agency.

The bill also imposes a $0.25 excise tax on any customer-service call transferred to an agent in a foreign location.

Still, Uligan said this could just be another political statement, similar to the pronouncements of President Obama during the election campaign that he will bring back the outsourced jobs to the Americans.

Uligan said the American legislators should also open their eyes to the fact that their constituents no longer want to take on these call-center jobs.

“It is still too early to say what will happen but, of course, we cannot just allow this to progress while we are sitting pretty,” he said. –Max de Leon / Reporter, Businessmirror