[February 19, 2004] New Federal Legislation to Seriously Harm Inbound and Offshore Call Centers Offshore call centers in India, Philippines, Canada, Jamaica and other countries have been the hot topic in State Legislatures like NC and NJ. Now HR 3816 takes aim at moving offshore jobs back to the United States. Rep. Strickland of Ohio has introduced federal legislation to make disclosure of location, a mandatory requirement for all call center employees for U.S. companies and their subsidiaries. It takes little analysis to see the potential chilling effect this will have on offshore outsourcing. Who will be impacted by this piece of legislation? Inbound call centers - Traditionally, inbound call centers have been left alone, but this will impact every call center in the world Internet - This bill calls on contact centers that do technical support, customer service and sales support using the internet to disclose location as well Outbound - The obvious target of much action, but less impacted by this legislation than the other two channels If this is not enough, the bill requires annual certification of compliance. In effect, there is a new level of investigation into all call centers, and the equivalent of an international registry of contact centers embedded in this bill. If you have an opinion on this bill, and the offshore issue, there is only one place to be to have that opinion heard: The ATA Washington Conference. http://www.ataconnect.org/washington [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]