The Hindu : National : Hotline service to be launched for BPO staff

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Thursday, Nov 08, 2007
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National

Hotline service to be launched for BPO staff

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: For the safety of its employees, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry has decided to set up 24x7 hotline wireless networks and create security patrol units to keep a check on movement of cabs.

It has also decided to create and share a centrally fixed wireless radio frequency hotline between the BPO transport team and local police.

The hotline wireless service will soon be launched within the National Capital Region (NCR), mainly in Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon, where a large number of BPOs are functioning.

This was decided at a meeting called by the Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Tuesday to review the security measures being taken by the industry in view of the murder of a female BPO executive by a cab driver in Pune.

The “BPIAI 24x7 Hotline Wireless Network” and security patrol units will come up in other cities also, including Bangalore, Pune, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Mysore within a month.

Similarly, all BPIAI security patrol vehicles will work closely with the local police to check rash driving. Senior management of leading BPO units, including Genpact, WNS, Dell, Quatrro and Teletech, took part in the meeting.

The participants unanimously agreed to take long-term measures such as mandatory pre-employment screening of all cab drivers by police and transporters, sharing of blacklisted drivers’ list among the BPO units, procedure to check on the female employee picked first and dropped last and security patrolling cabs to escort such female employees. To check rash and drunken driving, the BPO management has suggested imposing stringent penalty on cab operators and promoting use of breathalyser to penalise guilty drivers.

The companies have also decided to share “best practices” available in terms of employee security guidelines that exist within the association and modify them if needed. BPO managements have decided to adopt some “orthopaedic measures” such as yoga classes to de-stress drivers.

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