Recession-hit BPO employees 'on the bench'

BPO employees
were once thriving with so many job opportunities, but are now feeling the heat of the economic slowdown, as call centres have begun cutting back on jobs.

In the NCR region - Noida and Gurgaon - worried about actually laying off people, some companies are resorting to putting them on the bench.

For three months, Anshul Kumar has not reported to the call centre where he has worked for two years. Officially, he hasn't been sacked. He's been told he's "on the bench" and his id card has been taken back. He can't show up at work and he doesn't get paid.

"The process we moved to after spending more than two years in the programme faced a lot of issues due to recession. It was downsizing at that time so they decided to put us on bench. Like any other employee, I wanted to grow with the company and get recognition but it didn't go that way. It really feels bad," said Anshul Kumar.

Putting young workers on the bench is one way of controlling costs. Here's another.

A Noida-based BPO no longer offers transport to employees who live further than 45 km away. So employees in Gurgaon and Faridabad, or parts of Delhi like Rithala, need to assemble at a pick-up point even at 3 am.

"Cost cutting is essential today. It's important to be more productive and reduce all the wastages we are living with. When four cabs are going to the same location, you can get a bus to do the same job," said Deepak Ohlyan, president, Business Process.

With the deepening financial crisis in the US, that accounts for 70 per cent of the BPO business, cost reduction and productivity improvement are the two most commonly heard words in call centres in the past few months.

In simple English, that means longer and tougher hours.

Those who answer phones have to spend nine hours instead of eight taking calls, which means longer shifts for answering calls. Administrative and support staff also have to take calls now and vacation time has been shortened.

"Stopping free meals or deducting money for transport, that is still ok. We are still earning, but if we loose our jobs after that due to recession, it really hurts because you don't know what's going to happen to you after that," said Anshul.