Protecting US call centre jobs at centre of new legislation

In a bid to reduce outsourcing of jobs, a Democratic senator is pushing legislation to make companies inform customers when their calls were being transferred outside the United States and charge companies for those transferred calls.

"This bill will not only serve to maintain call centre jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back," Senator Charles Schumer said in statement.

Customers calling 800 numbers are often transferred overseas, and in such cases the bill would mandate that callers be told where their calls were rerouted. Companies would also be required to certify to the Federal Trade Commission annually that they were complying with the requirement, and face penalties if they did not certify.

Schumer's bill would also impose a $0.25 excise tax on any customer service call placed inside the United States which is transferred to an agent in a foreign location. The fee would be assessed on the company that transferred the call.

Customer service call centres have become increasingly popular with businesses in recent years to deal with questions ranging from billing to technical support.

But the practice brings frequent complaints from customers who say their issues are not resolved or that representatives are merely providing scripted responses.

Schumer said the most popular countries for outsourcing of U.S. call centres included India, Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines and South Africa, places where workers generally receive lower wages and work longer hours than their U.S. counterparts.

If Schumer's bill is passed, companies would have to report the number of customer service calls received and the number of calls relayed overseas. There would be no fees imposed on domestic call centres.