Call Centres

Return from Delhi: Coles Myer work back in Australia

The outsourcing of the Coles Myer accounts work to Delhi, India, has been reversed. The call centre work has now been returned to the GE Capital Finance Centre in Melbourne after it was outsourced there over two years ago. ASU members work at GE Capital Finance.

This move follows what the ASU believes was a consumer backlash which first surfaced at the time of the outsourcing after the ASU revealed the Company's plans. These concerns were recently reignited after the airing of a documentary on ABC TV, "Diverted to Delhi", which exposed how staff are trained in these call centres. The documentary revealed that training programs included learning how to speak with an Australian accent and pretending that the call centre workers were in Australia.

"Diverted to Delhi" producer and director Greg Stitt told The Australian newspaper that he would be pleased if his documentary had stirred people to discuss the issues of outsourcing work to call centres.

The ASU continues to campaign for better wages and conditions in call centres in Australia and worldwide.

Recently ASU Assistant National Secretary Linda White visited one of the USA's largest call centre unions, the Communication Workers of America (CWA), to discuss how we can strengthen solidarity amongst call centre workers worldwide. Linda discussed the CWA's sponsorship of legislation in the State legislature of New Jersey which, when passed, will require the disclosure of a call centre's location to consumers.

As a result of this visit the ASU together with the ACTU is looking at how such consumer legislation can be introduced in Australia.

As the largest Australian call centre union, the ASU has also committed to participate in a worldwide call centre workers solidarity day in October 2003. Watch out for more details.