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Industry Watchers Say Anti-Offshoring Bill Will Have Little Impact

By Michael Guta, Contributing Writer

More than 500,000 call center jobs have been exported from the United States to countries like India and the Philippines, as well as many other developing nations. This industry employs around 4 percent of the United States workforce, totaling almost 5,000,000 Americans who are dependent on call centers to make a living. Legislation introduced by Congressman Tim Bishop to stop companies from exporting call-center jobs in the past has failed. But the new U.S. Call Center and Consumer Protection Act of 2013 is backed by co-sponsors Dave McKinley (R, WVA-1), Chris Gibson (R, NY-19), Gene Green (D, TX-29), Mike Grimm (R, NY-11), and Mike Michaud (D, ME-1).

The legislation would require call center agents to reveal their locations to U.S. consumers and transfer customers to U.S. call centers upon request; prohibit companies that move call center jobs overseas from receiving federal grants and loans; and give preference on government contracts to companies that keep call center jobs at home.

Although the legislation has considerable support including that of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America (CWA (News - Alert)), companies are still outsourcing their call center operations around the world, and once again the bill is not expected pass.

The CWA argues off-shoring call centers not only exports jobs outside of the country, but places many consumers in harm's way. Although hundreds of thousands of jobs are outsourced to India and the Philippines, these countries are not data-safe nations, and many of the largest financial institutions with sensitive personal data are continuing to export jobs.

According to a recent study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 83 percent of outsourcing companies it surveyed in India had information security breaches in the past year. This news is even more alarming with Indian call center companies sub-outsourcing the contracts to many developing nations that have little or no governance when it comes to protecting consumer data.

"If you bet against America and outsource jobs, American taxpayers turn their back on you--it's that simple. Our strong bipartisan coalition speaks with one voice, only good corporate citizens who grow jobs in America deserve taxpayer support," Rep. Tim Bishop said.

Call center legislation has been attempted at federal and state levels with very limited success, but until consumer start demanding a U.S.-based call center, they will continue to fail.