By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, March 1 (IslamOnline.net) - Business processes outsourcing (BPO) jobs in India have for some time been a brighter part of the economy. However, that may not be so for too long as U.S. workers feel threatened by jobs being outsourced to India because of low wages here.

As if that were not enough, British Telecom' s Communication Workers' Union (CWU) has also launched a campaign against the company' s plan to move its call center operations to India.

A crucial decision is expected on March 6 after which the unions may decide to go on strike.

CWU Assistant Secretary Sally Bridge told Asian Age Friday the company had assured workers there would be no redundancies if it decided to shift the operations to a call center in New Delhi, but the union felt the workers would ultimately " lose out on jobs".

CWU has already contacted three other trade unions — Amicus, Unity and Connect — to join the campaign.

"We fear major implications for employees here. At least 700 jobs will be affected starting next month," Bridge said.

Brian Harris of the Amicus Union was reported as saying ,"We are opposed to any UK jobs being moved to India.

"The companies we deal with have assured us that there will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of such a shift. However, if UK jobs are threatened, we have to consider strike action."

Most outsourced jobs are in information technology (IT) sector, or in services like medical transcription and call centers, where a large work force of English-knowing, technically competent young persons is available at a fraction of wages paid in the West for similar work.

For a while resentment has been simmering in the U.S. working class against jobs being outsourced to India.

Shirley K Turner, a member of the New Jersey state senate, has introduced a bill which can prevent BPO jobs being outsourced to India.

India’s leading business newspaper, Economic Times, which procured a copy of the bill recently, said the bill was yet to be passed to become a law.

Once it is passed New Jersey state government agencies will be instructed to introduce a clause specifying that services under the contract can be performed only by U.S. citizens or non-citizens legally living in the U.S.

This would mean that state government projects cannot be sent overseas.

This can trigger a large movement by trade unions to ban such outsourcing by the private sector as well.

Other state governments too might follow New Jersey’s lead, which will harm India’s job market as it is potentially the largest beneficiary of such offshore outsourced projects.

The bill is clear about its objective of preventing jobs from moving to India.

“Recent published reports have indicated that telephone enquiries by welfare and food stamp clients under New Jersey’s Family First program were handled by operators in Mumbai, India, after the contractor moved its operation outside the U.S. as a cost-cutting measure.

“The bill is intended to ensure that state funds are used to employ people residing in the United States and to prevent loss of jobs to foreign countries.”

Indian business and industry leaders are aware of the bill and are looking for a proper lobbying firm to work against it.

he bill is also seen here as being opposed to the General Agreement on Trade of Services, which is part of the WTO. India will oppose it in the WTO if the bill is passed.

The U.S. administration has also announced that it opposes any movement of services in which the model of delivery is the electronic medium.

As most of the BPO projects like call centers and software services use the Internet or the telecommunications network to deliver, they do fulfill criterion of electronic medium of delivery, the Economic Times said.

The bill has been pending, and may not be passed anytime soon.

However, a public policy backlash is likely once U.S. jobs begin to move to India on a larger scale.

Resentment against outsourcing jobs to India has been growing as more and more workers are laid off or retrenched across the U.S. to cope with the economic downturn.

American workers don’t like it when they see jobs moving to India as they become jobless.

Another source of growing antagonism is retrenchment of workers who are U.S. citizens by own companies and people called in from India on special work visas filling up those positions at lower salaries and more unfavorable terms.

Already U.S. citizens affected by this policy have filed suits in U.S. courts.

Information technology forecasts see 25 percent rise in outsourcing IT jobs to India in 2003. This naturally worries employees in the U.S. and UK whose jobs are threatened.

Meanwhile, Indians have become the second largest group to migrate to the United States.

Between 2000 and 2002 nearly a quarter million Indians have migrated to the U.S., coming second after Mexico. China stood third with 149,000 migrants.

This can cause worry to jobless workers among U.S. citizenry, especially in times of economic down-turn.