BT to recall over 2,500 call centre jobs from India
17 Jul 2009
UK's biggest telecommunication provider British Telecom (BT) will shift around half of its 5,500 call-centre jobs from India to the UK and close nearly half of its customer service operation in the subcontinent, reports said on Thursday.
BT's chief executive Ian Livingston revealed the plan at the company's annual general meeting yesterday, in response to a shareholder's question, The Times reported.
The Times quoted Livingston as saying that the group planned to repatriate over 50 per cent of its Indian call centre staff of around 5,500.
BT, which has 11,000 customer service staff in the UK, clarified that the move has nothing to do with the quality of service in India.
The move would, however, seriously impact the business of Indian IT majors like Infosys and Tech Mahindra, which count BT as one of their top customers.
A BT spokesman confirmed that his company would scale down third-party call centre staff based in India by around 4,000.
Reports quoting a BT spokesman said the move has more to do with an improvement in service quality that has rendered many of the jobs surplus.