The Hindu Business Line : Laboured worries

THE CONCERNS raised by the International Labour Organisation about workspace health conditions in the IT services and business process outsourcing sector come as a surprise. The employees in the IT/BPO services in the country have been a privileged lot compared to their counterparts in other sectors. But this is as it should it be, as historically, industries that have recorded exceptional growth in both volume and profit terms against international competition have recognised the need for recruiting and retaining quality manpower through an incentive structure that secures this outcome. At best, there could be isolated cases of less-than-humane treatment warranting some special effort. But even these could be ironed out over time.

Since multinationals (Fortune 500/Global 1000) account for a chunk of the offshoring contracts, strict due diligence is done on the physical infrastructure, the working conditions and the security before contracts are awarded. In most cases, as Indian IT service vendors operate dedicated development centres for these clients, there is hardly any scope for compromising on these conditions. Thus, the pressures of the market place itself would correct any deviation. The quality of the infrastructure in call-centre operations has never been an issue. In a recent survey on employee satisfaction, the high attrition levels seen in BPOs have been attributed to salary, lack of growth opportunities and workplace stress. In the parameters chosen for ratings, infrastructure/indoor environment was not even one of the criteria. Even health concerns, which are slowly emerging as an area of concern for BPOs, are associated primarily with the long and irregular working hours and workload stress. This again is linked to the stringent service level agreements signed by most call-centre contracts, rather than to the nature of indoor environment in any of these companies.

The swelling list of multinationals such as Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Nokia, Motorola and GE expanding their captive research base and a significant step-up in the services workforce by global vendors such as IBM, Accenture, Sapient or CSC suggests that India remains a choice destination for offshoring. The proliferation of captive and third party BPOs by the likes of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan or Bank of America has only reiterated the raison d'etre of the offshoring model. The latest rankings on `Global IT and BPO service locations' conducted by management consultants of global repute continue to place India at the top of the list in 2005, ahead of China and Malaysia, a testimony to the overall situation in the industry.

The fear of severe job losses that had kicked off a political storm in an election year in the US over offshoring last year has died down completely. Though a few security-related lapses in the BPO scene have elicited negative responses in the Western media, the urgent need to raise H1-B visas to address the serious shortage of talent in the developed world is gaining acceptance. In this backdrop, this latest ILO comment is an avoidable exercise in muddying the waters in an industry that has triumphed against the best in global business.

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