M A I N   N E W S

Indian call centre workers face racial abuse, quit

London, May 29
Alleged racial abuse and rude behaviour from British and American customers are driving an increasing number of Indian call centre workers to quit their jobs, a media report indicated today.

Irate customers and their “racial abuses” were factors contributing to the stress and strain in the call centre industry and some organisations have begun employing psychiatrists and counsellors to help their employees to cope, according to a report in The Observer.

“I’ve had people tell me, ‘Back off ... and don’t call me again”,’ said Eugene, 27, whose former employer, Spectrumind, provided an accounts services for BT. “There was a lot of racist abuse once people detected from our accents that we weren’t English. I saw girls reduced to tears by it.”

Pooja Chopra, 29, from Delhi, who spent two years fielding calls for BT Cellnet and America Online, faced similar abuse. “People would say ... I don’t want to talk to you, pass me to someone who can speak my language.”

Workers face a spectrum of rudeness-from sexual harassment to fury at unsolicited sales calls, to “open racism”, the report said.

Industry analysts have seen the phenomenon of “racist” clients grow in recent years, as customers in the UK and the US become increasingly sensitive to the political issue of jobs outsourced to India, it said.

According to the report, there are no unions yet to represent the 350,000 workers in the Indian call centre business, but unionist Gautam Mody, who is trying to launch the first call centre workers’ collective, said this was a problem that needed to be addressed urgently abroad.

“Some workers are deeply hurt by this abuse. The issue of xenophobia cannot be resolved from India-end: there must be a battle against it in the countries responsible.”

The report quoted Anita Bhuttar, training vice-president of GTL, a Mumbai-based company, as saying that “British customers can be very rude but in a polite way. Usually they won’t use abusive language but you can tell from the tone of their voice they’re angry.” — PTI