TRADE UNION? INDIA’S BPO WORKERS SAY ‘NO’ From Europe to North America, India’s offshore workers (Business Process Outsourcing) – call-centre operators, data-entry clerks and telemarketers – may seem like the sweatshop labourers of the information age, toiling for long hours with modest pay, but an international alliance of unions that wants them to become union members is finding it very hard to recruit them. These workers think of themselves as members of a relatively well-paid, respected professional elite in no need of union protection. The back office outsourcing industry in India employs around 400000 workers, yet the Union Network International (UNI) organisation has only recruited 500 of them so far. ‘A union would make sense if we had no job security,’ said KV Sudhakar, a technical support worker, ‘but there are so many jobs and so few qualified staff that firms are trying all possible means to keep employees happy so they will not leave.’ A similar situation has arisen in the USA where unions have lost many members as traditional manufacturing industries decline. They find it very difficult to recruit whitecollar workers and professional workers in the finance and other service industries. An Indian worker who did join UNI is Raghavan Iyengar, a call-centre supervisor. He said companies give incentives to those who work beyond contracted time and young workers often ignore health problems, such as insomnia and bad backs, to earn extra money. ‘The industry’s motto is “shut your mouth and take your money”’, he said, ‘and we want to change that.’
Source: The Associated Press.
20 marks, 40 minutes
1. Define the term ‘trade union’. [2]
2. Outline two responsibilities trade unions have when they are representing their members. [4]
3. Explain two reasons why employers might not want their employees to join trade unions. [4]
4. Evaluate the benefits to call-centre workers in India of joining the UNI. [10]