Anti-outsourcing rhetoric in US likely to escalate

MANILA, Philippines -  Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo warned the government and the private sector yesterday to expect an escalation of anti-job outsourcing rhetoric in the United States.

“We expect the anti-outsourcing rhetoric in Washington to build up in the months ahead, simply because American politicians courting votes will want to make it appear they are protecting badly-needed US jobs from going overseas,” he said.

“However, we don’t consider the Bishop bill a real threat to the booming outsourcing industry of the Philippines. It is just a pre-election political gambit. We seriously doubt the bill will see the light of day,” Romulo said.

He was referring to New York Rep. Tim Bishop’s proposed US Call Center and Consumer Protection Act, which would require the US Department of Labor to track firms that outsource jobs overseas.

The firms would be ineligible for any direct or indirect US federal loans or loan guarantees for five years. The bill would also require contact center staff to disclose their location to US consumers, who would be given the right to be routed to a US-based call center upon request.

Romulo is a key backer of the Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which is projected to directly employ up to 1.3 million Filipinos and produce some $25 billion in annual revenues by 2016.

“American companies are actually gaining in a big way from their ability to outsource non-core operations, mainly customer support activities, to inexpensive locations such as the Philippines,” he said.

“To begin with, the BPO service providers here in the Philippines are predominantly American firms that remit profits to mother companies in the US,” he said.

He said US-based BPO providers with large Philippine operations include Convergys Corp., TeleTech Holdings Inc., Sykes Enterprises Inc., IBM Corp.’s Global Business Services, Sitel Worldwide Corp., StarTek Inc., NCO Group Inc., Sutherland Global Services Inc., APAC Customer Services Inc., and Synnex Corp.

He pointed out that these BPO firms provide services to mostly US-based client firms, many of which belong to the Fortune 500 largest American corporations, he added.

“Outsourcing to the Philippines has enabled many Fortune 500 American corporations to reduce cost and keep more jobs in America,” Romulo stressed.

“If not for the cost-savings from outsourcing, distressed American banks, insurers, and other financial firms would likely have thrown more Americans out of their jobs at the height of the global financial crisis,” he added.

Romulo is author of the proposed Act Protecting the Privacy of Personal Data in Information Systems, which is expected to further encourage outsourcing to the Philippines. The House of Representatives has already passed the bill on final reading.