BT to take back 2,000 Desi jobs to UK; more cuts likely

IT majors Infosys and HCL could bear the brunt of BT’s decision to take back 2,000 call centre services jobs from India to its home base in the UK this year.

BT’s Chief Executive, Mr Ian Livingston, had revealed the plan on Wednesday in response to a question asked by a shareholder at the group’s annual general meeting.

When contacted a BT spokesperson told Business Line, “BT Retail can confirm it is reducing its reliance on third party call centre staff in India. By next year, approximately 4,000 less people will be contracted in India than was the case in early 2008.

“Much of this reduction is due to improved customer service, which means that fewer support staff are required. “Some work will however be moved back to the UK and given to full-time BT employees affected by cuts elsewhere in these challenging times.

“BT has a responsibility to find work for its permanent workforce and this is just one measure it is taking to protect its direct workforce,” he said.

No quality issues
BT said that the move to recall jobs was not because of quality issues. BT sources in India said that while 2,000 jobs have already been taken back last year another 2,000 call centre seats will be reduced this year.

Impact on Indian cos
They said that Infosys and HCL would be the ones losing out on the contracts.

Revenues from BT have more than halved for Infosys over the past six quarters as the telecom firm has reduced volumes and also due to the adverse impact of cross currency movements.

For the latest quarter, BT accounted for about 4.5 per cent of Infosys’ revenues against a high of 10.3 per cent in quarter-ended March 2008.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Tech Mahindra said: “We do not comment on specific customer engagement. We remain a strategic partner with BT across multiple service offerings.” Tech Mahindra currently enjoys committed business worth over $2 billion from BT.

The announcement is unlikely to impact Tech Mahindra as of now since BT is a major shareholder in the city-based company, sources said. However, it may be noted that BT has been looking to sell its 31 per cent stake in Tech Mahindra for some time now.

Of late, there have been numerous examples of companies returning customer service functions to domestic locations.

The world’s largest airline, Delta Airlines announced in April 2009 that it would close its contact centre in India and return these functions to locations back home in the US. Similar centres in South Africa and Jamaica were not affected by this move, according to a report from AT Kearney.

In a similar move, Dell is now offering a premium technical support subscription that guarantees American customers they can talk to customer service representatives in the US as opposed to India.