5 Ideas to make outsourcing less ugly
January 23rd 2012 04:48
Back in 2006, the Financial Services Union (FSU), Australian Services Union (ASU), the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) (Communications Division) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) collaberated on a report into outsourcing in Australia. The findings and recommendations are every bit valid today. Their recomendations (in bold) are discussed as follows.
1. Introduce legislation that requires service providers to disclose the country where their employees are located at the time of transaction.
Imagine ringing the phone company and waiting on hold for fifteen minutes. Then a chirpy voice answers, "Good afternoon, this is Raj in India.How can I help you today?" Undoubtebdly some customers would hang up right away, but would they adapt if there was no other option? From experience, even in Australian call centres, employees, particularly those with accents are regularly bombarded with "Are you in Australia? Which area?"
2. Ensure that any financial or personal information shall not be sent off-shore without the express permission of the consumer.
Can you imagine the bank sending a letter like this:
Dear Customer,
We wish to inform you that in order to best source work, we are sending your private information to a country that may have very different laws and regulartions to Australia regarding privacy. Please tick the box below to show you agree for your information to go abroad.
Yours faithfully,
Gail Kelly, Westpac CEO
ps. Your fees aren't changing even though we've reduced our costs. I will however continue to receive a giant bonus.
3. Develop and promote an integrated plan that promotes and builds Australian skills and capacity.
There has been much talk about the skill shortage in Australia the pros and cons of using migration to fill gaps but less of a campaign to show residents how to cross over and fill the gaps. How about Centrelink referring unemployed people to the core skills required and linking dole and other benefits to training in these areas? Could the newspapers not only publish the road toll but a skills in need poll each week and a corresponding meet the employer program? Could some older employees be trained in these areas?
4. Require that contracts to perform work for Australian government agencies include a condition that the work cannot be sent ‘off-shore’.
Imagine if an off-shore company were doing some back office work for the government and a diplomatic disagreement between the two countries ensued (such as recently when many Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney complained of racial violence causing a drop in international students).
This relates again to privacy and the heightened potential for sensitive information to drop into the wrong hands in a country with less stringent privacy and security laws than Australia. The government is already offshoring some of its processes, hopefully nothing that would endanger the sovereignty or security of its citizens.
5. Encourage Australian and international companies to adopt the Union Network International ‘Charter on Offshore Outsourcing’ that requires minimum global employment conditions consistent with ILO conventions for any work performed off-shore.
Let's face it. the real reason companies off shore is to save costs, not as Gail Kelly, Westpac CEO puts it, to best source workers. There have been many investigations into sweat shops, additionally white collar service jobs also may not follow fair labour laws abroad. The FSU report cites examples where outsourced call centre operators may take a much higher number of calls than Australian workers and have high turnover from the stress of meeting stringent targets.
If work is to really benefit countries with high unemployment, then fair labour conditions must follow to ensure we are not allowing exploitation.
1. Introduce legislation that requires service providers to disclose the country where their employees are located at the time of transaction.
Imagine ringing the phone company and waiting on hold for fifteen minutes. Then a chirpy voice answers, "Good afternoon, this is Raj in India.How can I help you today?" Undoubtebdly some customers would hang up right away, but would they adapt if there was no other option? From experience, even in Australian call centres, employees, particularly those with accents are regularly bombarded with "Are you in Australia? Which area?"
2. Ensure that any financial or personal information shall not be sent off-shore without the express permission of the consumer.
Can you imagine the bank sending a letter like this:
Dear Customer,
We wish to inform you that in order to best source work, we are sending your private information to a country that may have very different laws and regulartions to Australia regarding privacy. Please tick the box below to show you agree for your information to go abroad.
Yours faithfully,
Gail Kelly, Westpac CEO
ps. Your fees aren't changing even though we've reduced our costs. I will however continue to receive a giant bonus.
3. Develop and promote an integrated plan that promotes and builds Australian skills and capacity.
There has been much talk about the skill shortage in Australia the pros and cons of using migration to fill gaps but less of a campaign to show residents how to cross over and fill the gaps. How about Centrelink referring unemployed people to the core skills required and linking dole and other benefits to training in these areas? Could the newspapers not only publish the road toll but a skills in need poll each week and a corresponding meet the employer program? Could some older employees be trained in these areas?
4. Require that contracts to perform work for Australian government agencies include a condition that the work cannot be sent ‘off-shore’.
Imagine if an off-shore company were doing some back office work for the government and a diplomatic disagreement between the two countries ensued (such as recently when many Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney complained of racial violence causing a drop in international students).
This relates again to privacy and the heightened potential for sensitive information to drop into the wrong hands in a country with less stringent privacy and security laws than Australia. The government is already offshoring some of its processes, hopefully nothing that would endanger the sovereignty or security of its citizens.
5. Encourage Australian and international companies to adopt the Union Network International ‘Charter on Offshore Outsourcing’ that requires minimum global employment conditions consistent with ILO conventions for any work performed off-shore.
Let's face it. the real reason companies off shore is to save costs, not as Gail Kelly, Westpac CEO puts it, to best source workers. There have been many investigations into sweat shops, additionally white collar service jobs also may not follow fair labour laws abroad. The FSU report cites examples where outsourced call centre operators may take a much higher number of calls than Australian workers and have high turnover from the stress of meeting stringent targets.
If work is to really benefit countries with high unemployment, then fair labour conditions must follow to ensure we are not allowing exploitation.
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