The Hindu : New Delhi News : Reports of appalling working conditions in call centres denied

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 26, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Reports of appalling working conditions in call centres denied

Sandeep Dikshit

``We are going to be more forthcoming about the image of the IT industry''

NEW DELHI: The IT industry on Monday denied reports of appalling working conditions in call centres and said it was planning to install industry benchmarks for employee management to ensure that standards did not dip below the accepted norms.

"This is a large industry and there are various players. We are aware there should be some kind of minimum standards. But since demand outstrips supply we have to retain employees. So it [good human relations practice] happens automatically,'' said Nasscom president Kiran Karnik in response to a report by the V.V. Giri National Institute of Labour.

The study claimed that "the degree of surveillance required at work is even comparable with situations of nineteenth century prisons or Roman slave ships'' and the human resource (HR) managers' task is "camouflaging work as fun''.

With six States exempting call centres from labour laws including the Industrial Dispute Act, there has been concern over youngsters being turned into zombies due to the nature of call centre operations. But heads of two leading call centres also denied that was the case, claiming that employee satisfaction surveys had given them marks much higher than in brick and mortar industries. Along with the Nasscom chief, they took exception to the survey's authors for not approaching them for their comments.

Media campaign

Asked repeatedly whether there was a pattern to the anti-call centre media reports [`there were two media stings earlier alleging inadequate data protection practices'], Dr. Karnik said, "we as industry need to do a better job. We haven't done enough. But I am mystified over the spate of articles. We are going to be more forthcoming about the image of the industry since there appears to be a huge gap between perception and reality.''

Pramod Bhasin, president of Genpact which employs 19,000 people in India, said, "I promise you I'll be in the forefront of that change, as far as possible.''

On forming unions in call centres, Dr. Karnik's reaction was nearly on the same lines as CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat who had said the question is whether the employees want to join unions.

Dr. Karnik said: "in this industry every youngster wants to be the CEO after a year or two. I don't know with that kind of mindset, they would want to join unions.'' Mr. Bhasin thought unions were unnecessary because each grievance was given a hearing but maintained that strict work discipline was required.

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